Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

It is appropriate that the Minister of State mentions the Duvalier family because that family's assets are also in France. When Papa Doc junior fled Haiti loaded with the assets of the Haitian people there was a deep reluctance on the part of the French Government, given its particular form of colonial diplomacy, to freeze the assets of the Duvalier family. The Minister of State can, therefore, when asking questions about the assets of the in-laws of the former President of Tunisia, also ask what is left of the Duvalier fortune, which is banked in Paris.

It is important that the European Union, when speaking on these issues, does so with truth. There is a serious issue involved in respect of the French Government not only in respect of these two particular issues but relating to many other dictatorship families in Africa.

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