Ex-Dictator 'Baby Doc' Returns to Haiti after 25 Years

Former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has made a surprise return to Haiti in the midst of a political vacuum left by disputed presidential elections.

Returning to his homeland Sunday for the first time after 25 years in the political wilderness, most of them spent in exile in France, Duvalier told reporters at the airport, simply: "I've come to help."

The sudden re-emergence of Duvalier, 59, only added to the intrigue in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, as efforts to find a successor to President Rene Preval have fallen into disarray.

Duvalier's partner Veronique Roy, who was accompanying him, told Agence France Presse he would speak to reporters on Monday.

She described how the former dictator bent to his knees and kissed the ground as he set foot on home soil for the first time since his violent ouster in 1986.

"Haiti my country, the country of Dessalines," she quoted him as declaring, in reference to independence hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who drove the French out and made himself emperor.

Roy suggested the couple's return had been prompted by the devastating earthquake almost exactly a year ago that killed nearly a quarter of a million Haitians.

"It's so emotional. We were not expecting this welcome," she said.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told AFP late Sunday that Duvalier "is a Haitian and as such is free to return home" without commenting on whether the disgraced ex-leader would face possible legal action.