I read Fort-Dimanche, Dungeon of death of Patrick Lemoine, a disturbing book. It was necessary to publish such a book. No one, save the rare survivors, and of course their torturers, could have suspected what was happening behind the sinister walls of Fort-Dimanche.

What the book relates to the reader is surreal but true. Its documentation is impressive and meticulous. Unless the reader is familiar with Duvalier's prisons, he is left perplex. How could one imagine that a human mind could manifest such perversity in its barbarities? Could one have thought that some human beings could have survived such barbarities? They were real and Patrick Lemoine is alive today to bear witness after six years of intolerable treatment (1971 - 1977).

The horrors that Lemoine relates did not occur during the nightmarish reign of Francois Duvalier, they happened during the rather acceptable administration of Jean-Claude Duvalier. The son of a tiger is a tiger! Consequently, things could not have been otherwise since the son was raised by his father who left him his army and his macoutes.

The rhythm of the book is as monoto- nous as is life in prison. This monotony is rendered impressive as the horror increases in each page, thus building up suspense. Will Lemoine resist? By what means will he do so? From the first page to the last, each ray of hope is met with a disintegrating situation. Six years of this existence... the word existence does not fit... Six years of agony during which the victims seeks in vain the light at the of the tunnel.

The savagerie, the indifference of the torturers toward their victims is terrifying. In order to survive, the prisoners movingly deploy their ingenuity. Positively admira-ble is the mental attitude of the prisoner who manages to subli- mate his material self, " this bag of bones" as Lemoine calls it, which allows him to sustain con-tinuous deprivations and miseries

Suddenly from a cell, the eery scream of "Death! Death! Death! resounds. Conagiously all the cells echo the same sinister words. A prisoner has left the world whence noone returns. Should one bemoan the ends to a slow and inexorable death? Those remaining ask themselves that question. But it neccasry to react and to hope against hope.

The cell environment is a microcosm of the outside world. Social prejudices based on skin color and class are found intact and threaten at any moment a vulnerable equilibrium. It is impor-tant to restore discipline and order, lest the prisoners fight like mad dogs for an extra spoonful of the infamous Fort-Dimanche mush. In addition, those who resisted the regime share their cells with the rejected children of the Duvalierist revolution. These fallen macoutes behave with arro-gance; they spy and denounce those who resist; they nonetheless burst like dogs along with everyone else. They were duly warned by their great leader who advocated, " the revolution swallos its own children"

  In a simple, yet raw style, Patrick Lemoine describes a prison system so intolerable that one whishes to banish if forever. He names the victims, their tortu-rers and their denouncers; those who succombed and those who thrived; those who died and those who survived.

This book is an implacable refe- rendum against dictatorship. It brings to bear no ideology other than the freedom of thought and expression, a threat to the privi- leged status of bloody schemers that the Duvaliers their armies and their macoutes could not tolerate. Fort-Dimanche, Fort-la-mort must be read by anyone who wants to know, especially by the young who should know, because it is difficult for them to imagine the unthinkable.