Baby Doc goes on the run from debt

PARIS - Jean-Claude Duvalier, the former Haitian dictator known as 'Baby Doc', has disappeared from his Cannes villa after running into debt, writes Julian Nundy.

Neighbours said he had left his home in Super-Cannes, owned by a Lancashire businessman, on Tuesday. His disappearance was discovered yesterday by a French television crew that wanted to interview him about events in his homeland, where US forces landed on Monday.

A woman in the house told them he had gone to the Paris region. Later, Simone Duvalier, his mother, refused to talk to visitors and called out 'leave me in peace' from the grounds of the house.

Nicknamed 'Baby Doc' as he took over from his father, 'Papa Doc', when he died in 1971, the younger Duvalier, now 43, was toppled from power in 1986 and fled to the Cote d'Azur. He has lived with his mother since his wife divorced him two years ago.

Mr Duvalier moved into the house of Roland Miller, a Bolton businessman, last year after leaving another property. Mr Roland says that Mr Duvalier owed him rent.