Port-Au-Prince: A carnival-like atmosphere prevailed on Sunday as ousted strongman Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier returned to an earthquake-ravaged Haiti desperate for any political leadership.

It is perhaps another measure of Haiti's increasing misery - following a catastrophic earthquake a year ago, a raging cholera outbreak and an ongoing political crisis - that the leader who was driven out by popular protests in 1986 and accused of pillaging the treasury is now seen by many as a hero.

Crowds of young men - few of them old enough to remember Baby Doc's iron-fisted 15-year reign in the 1970s and 80s or his dreaded Tonton Macoutes militia - took to the streets to welcome him back from a 25-year exile.

After arriving at Port-au-Prince airport and passing through immigration Duvalier, 59, and his partner Veronique Roy were whisked by convoy to the upscale Karibe hotel, where hundreds had gathered to welcome him.

"Duvalier has returned, so we will have a real country now. We are glad that he is here to restore the country's image," said Ronald Brevil, 25, who had earlier rushed to the airport to see the leader he never knew.

Others called for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, another former leader who fled in 2004 and now lives in exile in South Africa.

"Duvalier must be tried. He committed crimes and stole money from the people. Viva Aristide!" a young man shouted.

Among Haitians who are old enough to remember the repressive rule of Duvalier and his father "Papa Doc" before him, the response to his return was mixed and surprisingly muted.

"We're happy. He's going to do good things," said 39-year-old Joseph Patrick. "Things were good with him. There was food and security."

In today's Haiti little has been rebuilt following a massive earthquake a year ago that killed nearly a quarter of a million people and flattened the capital Port-au-Prince.

The November 28 presidential elections were supposed to bring new hope but instead have left the country in political limbo, and a cholera outbreak has killed 3,790 people since October.

Duvalier has not yet said why exactly he has returned, and his arrival has fueled intrigue about his possible political intentions.

Away from the celebrating crowds, down a quiet alley in the capital, 44-year-old Daniel Benjamin insisted Duvalier "doesn't faze me" and that the ex-dictator had the right to return to his country.

"When he left in 1986 things were better. Now there's more political freedom, but I think the Haitian people could not handle it," he said, referring to the recent political tensions.

Duvalier returns to a political vacuum following the elections, which were marred by widespread fraud allegations, many of them directed at the ruling party of the current president Rene Preval.

The initial results set off riots among the supporters of a third-placing candidate, and the Organization of American States (OAS) has reportedly said that Preval's hand-picked candidate should step aside ahead of a run-off.

Haiti has a long history of political upheaval and was beset by instability even during the time of the Duvaliers, with Papa Doc fighting off nearly a dozen coup attempts between 1957 and 1971.

The instability fed into his decision to emasculate the country's military and instead rely on the Tonton Macoutes -- a vicious band of loyalists named for a mythical Creole bogeyman -- to terrorize his opponents.

When Baby Doc succeeded him at the age of 19 he kept the system in place for another 15 years.

"He should never have been president" because he was so young, Benjamin said. "The crimes were not his, they were those of his father's people."

As Benjamin and his friends play dominoes and listen to the radio, eager to hear how Haiti's latest troubled chapter will play out, Duvalier seems less like the tyrant he once was and more like a symptom of something deeper.

"They say his government killed a lot of people," Benjamin says. "But a lot of governments after him did the same."