The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed the entry into force of the new law on the restitution of assets of politically exposed persons on its website.

“The Duvalier finds were then blocked under article 14,” setting in motion the legal process for seizure, it added.

The new law was partly prompted by a 25 year legal battle between Swiss authorities and the Duvalier family over some 5.7 million dollars of allegedly embezzled funds.

They have been frozen temporarily in a Swiss bank since Duvalier was ousted.

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Clinton says the U.S. is deeply committed to helping the impoverished nation rebuild from last year’s earthquake and cope with a cholera epidemic.

She told reporters traveling with her that the U.S. would push for recommendations made by international experts about the fraud-marred first round in the presidential voting in November.

Those experts said President Rene Preval’s preferred successor finished third — and the U.S. wants that candidate to bow out.

Clinton plans to meet with Preval and the three leading candidates. The runoff is in March.

Clinton says she sees no circumstances where the U.S. would withhold aid for Haiti.

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Clinton will meet Sunday with President Rene Preval and the three candidates vying to succeed him during her visit. She will also see a treatment center for the cholera epidemic that has killed almost 4,000 people.

Haiti’s political crisis stems from a first-round presidential election in November that was marred by fraud.

The U.S. wants Preval’s preferred candidate, Jude Celestin, to bow out because the Organization of American States says he had the least support. The U.S warns that continued aid for Haiti’s reconstruction from last year’s earthquake is at stake.

Haiti’s presidential run-off is in March.

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President Rene Preval, in comments during a visit to the neighboring Dominican Republic, said “everyone is responsible before justice for their crimes” under Haiti’s constitution.

“The government has done all it can do and we now hope that justice will do its work,” Preval told reporters Saturday nearly a week after Duvalier’s return, which sparked fresh turmoil in the earthquake-shattered country.

Within 48 hours of Duvalier’s unexpected return, government prosecutors slapped him with a slew of charges, many related to the alleged siphoning off of hundreds of millions of dollars during his 15-year rule.

Six private lawsuits have also been filed against the 59-year-old former strongman over alleged human rights violations and torture, and judicial officials expect more complaints to follow.

Chief Magistrate Harycidas Auguste said the government was now pursuing a dual track on Duvalier — with the corruption, embezzlement and criminal charges on one hand, and crimes against humanity charges on the other.

“We can’t really say for sure by when we’ll stop receiving complaints,” he told AFP. “Even at the trial, if we arrive at that stage, someone may come and claim to have been a victim.”

Duvalier’s lawyer said the former dictator had every intention of staying in Haiti to clear his name and suggested it was the current president who should go to jail.

“Preval should go to prison for all his wrongdoings, for the stolen millions, and he knows it very well,” Reynold Georges told AFP.

Duvalier has denied his unexpected return, after 25 years of exile spent mostly in France, has anything to do with a post-election crisis gripping the country that led to deadly riots in December.

Human rights activists and experts suggest the most plausible explanation is that Duvalier is short of money and wants to get his hands on $5.7 million that Switzerland is set to release to the Haitian government.

An American lawyer in Duvalier’s entourage said the former dictator only wanted to make sure the cash, frozen in Swiss bank accounts, goes to the Haitian people.

“What he’d like to do with the funds in Switzerland is contribute to the rebuilding of the country,” Edwin Marger said. “He’s not asking that anything goes to him personally.”

In his only public remarks since returning, Duvalier, appearing frail, expressed sorrow on Friday to “fellow countrymen who say, rightly, that they were victims under my government.”

Duvalier’s return has been widely condemned for compounding the political uncertainty in a country still in ruins from a catastrophic earthquake a year ago that killed more than 220,000 people.

Around 100 people took to the rubble-strewn streets of the capital on Sunday in response to a call from a dozen presidential candidates for mass protests to annul the elections.

US-led pressure is mounting on Preval to withdraw his handpicked protege from delayed second round elections after international monitors slammed the vote as tainted by fraud.

Initial results showed that opposition candidate Michel Martelly lost out to Preval’s ruling party contender Jude Celestin by less than 7,000 votes.

Opposition candidates accused Preval and the electoral commission of orchestrating massive fraud in favor of Celestin and the president allowed in a team of international monitors to scrutinize the results.

In a lengthy report, the monitors advised the electoral commission to let Martelly face Mirlande Manigat — the 70-year-old former first lady who clearly topped the November 28 poll — in the second round run-off.

The election commission insists it can only change the order if legal complaints from the candidates are upheld. Preval is yet to comment on the report.

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John Holmes told The Associated Press that the complex process of finding available land for transitional shelters, slow decision-making by the government and new waves of Haitians moving into homeless camps have made responding to the crisis particularly hard.

“We are a bit frustrated that it’s taken so long,” said Holmes, who is in Australia for a meeting of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ donor support group. “We’ve not been able to build many of these transitional shelters so far.”

The hurricane season began last week and forecasters are predicting it will be an active one, with as many as 23 named tropical storms. Deforestation and erosion has left Haiti particularly vulnerable to flooding and mudslides, and a big storm will create misery for those still living under tarps in flood zones five months after the quake.

“We have a lot of things to do and a lot of concerns and a lot of risks before we feel we’re in a more comfortable situation,” Holmes said.

Complicating matters further is the influx of Haitians moving into homeless camps, which have swelled in size to 1.5 million — almost twice as many as the number estimated soon after the quake.

Following the disaster, hundreds of thousands fled the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, to outlying cities to stay with relatives. But conditions in those areas are not much better, and with nothing to do and no income, they’ve begun to head back to the capital and settle in the camps, Holmes said.

Others can no longer afford to pay their rent and feel they have no other alternative but to move to the camps, he said. And although some houses have been deemed safe for people to move back into, many residents are too scared to return, fearing another tremor.

Many Haitians also believe they will get more food and medical aid if they’re in the camps than if they’re not, Holmes said.

“People feel that somehow that if they’re in the camps, then something will be provided in the end — and of course to some extent, it’s true,” Holmes said. “But I think they may have exaggerated expectations … which we need to manage. But that’s also the responsibility of the government.”

Haiti’s government has provided another challenge to the process of sheltering the homeless, Holmes said. Its infrastructure was shattered by the quake, and it is still not fully functioning, which means tough decisions take a long time to make, he said.

One major hurdle: getting government approval to build semi-permanent shelters made of wood with galvanized iron roofs. There is no land to build such housing in Port-au-Prince, and though areas have been identified outside the city, it has been hard to reach consensus between land owners, local authorities and the central government, Holmes said.

That’s because officials know that transitional settlements are likely to end up becoming permanent settlements for some, which calls into question issues of what will happen to the houses and the people in the long term.

Holmes said he predicts it will be many more months before proper reconstruction can begin.

“It has been an uphill struggle the whole way to make progress,” he said.

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“We are increasing our support for reconstruction after natural disasters by NOK 50 million. Some of these funds will be allocated to environmental, afforestation, agriculture and energy projects in Haiti. We are also increasing our funding to Haiti through international organisations,” Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim commented.

Altogether, Norway has pledged NOK 800 million in aid to Haiti for the period up to 2014.

In addition, the Government is increasing its humanitarian assistance by NOK 142 million under this year’s budget.

“We know from experience that new natural disasters will hit the Horn of Africa, Asia and Latin America in the course of the year. So it’s important to set aside funds for dealing with acute crises,” Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.

The Government is also proposing to increase its funding for clean energy by NOK 88 million. These funds will help to promote hydroelectric power, solar power and wind power projects, for instance through increased public–private cooperation on investments in clean energy.

The additional aid is to be financed by redistributions in the aid budget, in connection with reduced expenses for refugees  in Norway.

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On Wednesday, nearly 50 donors pledged $9.9 billion to help Haiti recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake destroyed the government and commercial center of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said, however, the best sign that recovery was under way in Haiti would be an uptick in private investment.

“There need to be real investments that are really sustainable,” Holmes told The Associated Press. “Given half a chance this country can recover.”

Government-estimated death tolls from the quake — which rose without explanation ahead of the conference — range from 217,000 to 300,000 people. Most of the estimated 1.3 million people left homeless are still sheltering on broken streets, hillsides and riverbeds.

The effort to attract private is being led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, who since before the quake has been tasked with encouraging private companies to provide jobs in a country where 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.

As co-chair of the committee that will oversee the $5.3 billion in near-term international aid pledged Wednesday, his role in Haiti will only grow.

“We’re going to have to create a financial system,” Clinton told the conference. “Haiti could become the first completely wireless country in the Caribbean. Haiti could become the first completely self-sufficient country in energy.”

Haitian business magnate and chamber of commerce president Reginald Boulos said investment was possible but that improvements in infrastructure were necessary along with other changes.

“I talk to a lot of foreign investors: hotel chains, energy companies. They want to invest in Haiti,” Boulos said after the speech. “They want to see a climate change in the business environment. They want to see a decrease of corruption … (and) a better functioning government.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who co-chaired the conference, called the pledges “an impressive sum by any standard.”

In the first minutes of the conference, Clinton announced the United States’ pledge of $1.15 billion over the next two years and Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign affairs chief, announced the EU’s pledge equivalent to more than $1.6 billion.

Haiti’s President Rene Preval asked donors to focus on education and help the country’s 9 million people provide for their own future.

At the core of the quake-ravaged country’s request for help is the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, whose board will coordinate and pay out the aid money. It is a key step to allaying donor concerns over Haiti’s history of official corruption and political unrest who want assurances that the money will go where it is intended.

Bill Clinton will co-chair the committee with Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. But it is a source of consternation among some Haitian lawmakers who want Preval’s administration to publish a report on how aid money was spent in the initial aftermath of the disaster.

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The 9.9-billion-dollar pledge from some 50 donors includes 5.3 billion dollars for the 2010-2011 period, far in excess of the 3.8 billion that was sought by conference organizers for that period.

That target was meant to fund a 4.0-billion-dollar action plan put forward by the Haitian government to fund reconstruction projects over the next two years in the poorest country in the Americas.

“The member states and international partners have pledged 5.3 billion dollars for the next two years and 9.9 billion dollars in total for the next three years and beyond,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon told a press conference wrapping up the meeting.

“Friends of Haiti have acted far beyond expectations.”

The aim of the meeting was to help the battered Caribbean country “build back better” after the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12 leveled parts of its capital Port-au-Prince, killing at least 220,000 people and leaving 1.3 million homeless.

Wednesday’s biggest contributions came from the United States and the 27-member European Union.

Several dignitaries emphasized the need to follow through on the pledges, which Ban said “will be published and tracked by a Web-based system” established by the UN and Haiti.

“Reconstruction will be Haitian-led, inclusive, accountable, transparent, coordinated and results oriented,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the press conference.

The US chief diplomat, co-hosting the conference with Ban, offered 1.15 billion dollars, saying the funds would go toward supporting Haiti’s plan “to strengthen agriculture, energy, health, and security and governance.”

The EU meanwhile pledged an additional 1.6 billion dollars, with France offering to disburse 180 million euros (243 million dollars) in 2010-2011 for food and the restoration of government authority.Facts: Haiti quake and UN donor conference

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told the meeting that the EU contribution was on top of 295 million euros already pledged, bringing total EU public and private contributions “close to three billion dollars.”

Some 138 countries, international bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, non-governmental organizations and Haitian expatriates took part in the one-day conference.

Officials have estimated Haiti needs 11.5 billion dollars in aid for reconstruction over the next 10 years.

Stressing the need not to repeat past errors in helping impoverished Haiti, Clinton appealed to the world to “do things differently” this time.

“We cannot retreat to failed strategies,” she added. “We need Haiti to succeed.”

Her husband, US special envoy to Haiti and former US president Bill Clinton meanwhile said that he and the Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive would lead an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) tasked with overseeing the pledges.

The IHRC, which will have an 18-month mandate, is meant to give the Haitian government “influence over how and where aid is spent and will ensure that the reconstruction is well coordinated” and addresses the needs of all Haitians.

UN Development Program administrator Helen Clark joined calls to put “the government and people of Haiti… in the driver’s seat of the recovery” and stressed the need to involve civil society, the private sector and the Haitian diaspora.

The World Bank meanwhile said it would provide 479 million dollars in aid through June 2011, of which 250 million was new funding.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick called for another meeting in six months’ time, coinciding with the annual General Assembly session in September to assess the progress.

“This is an opportunity to go from tragedy to trying to do something very differently, and the key to this is to be able to combine capable Haitian ownership with an effective donor partnership,” he noted.

He said this would require “budget support to help the Haitian government.”

“To make this easier for the various donor countries, the Bank will be serving as the fiscal agent for the multidonor trust fund, that we’ve helped set up with the other international agencies so as to try to assure stronger fiduciary controls,’ he added.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn described the conference as “a unique occasion to try to rebuild the Haitian economy” and said the proposed Trust Fund was “the right way to move forward.”

Among other key donations, Canada, a major provider of aid to Port-au-Prince, said it would also chip in with 400 million Canadian dollars (390 million US) while Brazil pledged 172 million dollars, including 15 million in direct budget support for the Haitian government.

Japan offered 30 million dollars in addition to 70 million already announced.

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“You have seen the images you are familiar with the pictures. More than 200,000 bodies were collected on the streets without counting those that are still under the rubble,” Preval told a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Mexico. “We might reach 300,000 people.”

That would make Haiti’s earthquake one of the most lethal natural disasters in modern history, more than the 200,000 people killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

The cost of rebuilding the impoverished country after the 7.0-magnitude quake could be as high as $14 billion (9 billion pounds), according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

Preval’s plea for aid will be at the top of the agenda at the regional summit being held near the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen.

With 250,000 houses destroyed and 1.5 million people living in tent camps made with bed sheets and plastic scraps in nearly every open space in the collapsed capital of Port-au-Prince, Preval said the most urgent need is for emergency shelter.

Aid workers worry that squalid conditions in the camps, many which have no latrines or source of clean water, could lead to disease outbreaks when the rainy season begins in earnest in March.

“The first rainy days that have started falling in Port-au-Prince have made it impossible to enjoy a dignified life and this is the reason for the request for shelters,” Preval said.

Looking ahead to a meeting with international donors to determine the overall shape of rebuilding plans, Preval suggested Haiti should decentralize away from Port-au-Prince, which suffered the heaviest damages.

“We will not try to reconstruct but rather to refound the country, where we don’t concentrate ourselves in one capital,” Preval said. He encouraged Latin American countries to step up investments in industry to help Haiti free itself from dependence on international aid.

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Emilio Estefan said he was talking with Quincy Jones about the importance of the Spanish market when the idea developed.

“You know, Latinos always want to do things in a positive way, to show the world that even we come from different places, we wanted to definitely help,” he said. “I think now is the best time because people forget.”

Actor Andy Garcia was also participating and said that as soon as Estefan called him, he said he would take part.

“You wish you wouldn’t have to do a fundraiser for Haiti,” he said. “It’s going to need attention for quite some time … It’s not just a question of raising money today and everything is going to be all right.”

Other singers who were to participate in recording the track includeBanda El Recodo, Carlos Santana, Chayanne, David Archuleta, Carlos Santana and Jose Feliciano.

The song, “Somos El Mundo,” was adapted by the Estefans, who partnered with Jones, Univision and the not-for-profit We are the World Foundation to gather the artists to record the song. Univision is underwriting, co-producing and doing distribution of the song, which goes on sale in March. All of the artists volunteered.

“I just feel real good. I am not here as an artist. I am here as a human being,” said Cuban-American singer and actor Jencarlos Canela.

“I think that the world needs to realize that we cannot wait for a tragedy to happen to come together and to be united.”

Singer Chayanne said he was moved by the opportunity to work on the song.

“You do it from the bottom of your heart and you really feel great to do something like this with Emilio and Gloria,” he said.

Singer Milly Quezada called it a chance to reach people who had not yet been moved by the events in Haiti.

“It is a divine opportunity for us to stand together in solidarity. Obviously, this song is a beautiful song. Gloria made a beautiful translation,” Quezada said.

Singer Ednita Nazario said she was “flabbergasted” when she saw images of the quake’s aftermath on TV.

“I think you do what comes straight from your heart. Its important to keep Haiti in people’s minds and heart. This is a longterm situation because it’s not rebuilding a building, its building a whole country that needs help,” she said “The difference is that Haiti has nothing.”

David Archuleta said it was great to see how many celebrities were willing to come together for the cause.

“I love this song. It’s just great to be able to be a part of it in Spanish,” he said.

Jon Secada called it a “momentous recording.”

“As a music community to be able to have the opportunity to come together and to do something that really matters, and give something back, it’s important,” he said.

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