Mr Duvalier said he wanted to show his solidarity by returning to Haiti
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Former Haitian leader Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has called for national reconciliation in his most extensive speech since he returned to the country on Sunday after 25 years in exile.
He said his surprise return had been prompted by last year’s earthquake and his desire to help rebuild the country.
Mr Duvalier also wanted “to express deep sorrow for all those who say they were victims of my government”.
He is being sued for torture and other crimes against humanity.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday by a former United Nations spokeswoman, Michele Montas, and three Haitians who were jailed during Mr Duvalier’s 1971-1986 rule.
Ms Montas said she had lodged lawsuits for arbitrary detention, exile, destruction of private property, torture and moral violation of civil and political rights.
State prosecutors have also charged Mr Duvalier with theft and misappropriation of funds during his time as president-for-life.
Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ DuvalierTakes over presidency aged 19 after death of his father Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier in 1971Calls himself “president-for-life”Popular protests force him to flee to France in 1986Accused of corruption and rights abuses that prompted more than 100,000 Haitians to flee the countryAsks Haitian people for forgiveness for “errors” in 2007 radio interview
Baby Doc’s return evokes dark pastOne of his lawyers said he was planning to stay in Haiti despite the charges, and might also get involved in politics.
Speaking in French and Creole at a news conference in a rented guest house, Mr Duvalier said he hoped for a rapid resolution to the political crisis in Haiti.
He arrived on the day Haiti was supposed to hold a second round of elections to choose a successor to outgoing President Rene Preval.
That vote has been postponed because of a dispute over which candidates should be on the ballot paper.
Provisional results from the first round on 28 November provoked violent demonstrations when they were announced, and most observers said there was widespread fraud and intimidation.
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Some banks have threatened to move abroad if they are broken up
The head of the commission reviewing whether the UK’s biggest banks should be broken up is expected to say later that wide-ranging reform is needed.
In a speech in London, Sir John Vickers is set to confirm he is considering plans to separate banks’ trading and retail operations.
These may require banks to put their investment arms into separate entities that could be allowed to collapse.
This would limit the risks to the wider financial system.
But Sir John will stress that no final decisions have yet been made.
Sir John, a former chief economist at the Bank of England, is the chairman of the five-person Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) set up by the coalition government.
It is looking at financial stability and competition, including the question of what should be done about banks deemed “too big to fail”.
One suggestion is that investment banks should be separated from retail banks, so that depositors’ money is not put at risk by the investment banking arms of the business.
Equally, if banks were allowed to collapse if mismanaged, taxpayers would not need to come to the rescue.
This is what happened when the last Labour government bailed out both Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group when it deemed the risks to the wider financial system of allowing them to collapse were too great.
The commission is also looking at whether too few big banks have too much control over the retail banking sector in the UK.
Currently, the top six British banks control about 90% of all deposits. This compares with a 68% market share for Germany’s top seven banks and just 35% for America’s top eight.
Other topics for scrutiny include whether banks should be restricted in the amount of their own money they can use for investment trading.
Critics have said that splitting up banks could damage the UK’s competitive edge and make banks leave the UK.
HSBC has warned it would consider moving its headquarters from the UK if the commission recommended a break-up, while Standard Chartered has also questioned the future of its UK headquarters.
The other members of the ICB are Clare Spottiswoode, the former director-general of Ofgas; Martin Taylor, a former chief executive of Barclays; Bill Winters, the former co-chief executive of JP Morgan, and Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.
The ICB has until September 2011 to make its recommendations to the government.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
