Kim Willsher, Paris (Guardian)
August 17, 2010

Source http://www.theage.com.au/world/call-on-france-to-repay-haiti-24bn-20100816-126u8.html

A GROUP of international academics and authors has written to French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling on his country to reimburse the crushing ''independence debt'' it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago.

The open letter says the debt, now worth more than 17 billion ($A24.2 billion), would cover the rebuilding of the country after an earthquake killed more than 250,000 people seven months ago.

Its signatories - including Noam Chomsky, Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein, African-American author and civil rights activist Cornel West and several French philosophers - say that if France repays the money it would be a solution to the shortfall in international donations promised.

Despite pledges at an international donors' conference in March of aid totalling $A5.9 billion, only five countries - Brazil, Norway, Australia, Colombia and Estonia - have sent aid amounting to about $A567 million.

The letter in the French newspaper Liberation yesterday, said the debt was ''patently illegitimate … and illegal''.

The debt dates back to when Haiti, then St Dominique, was France's most profitable colony thanks to slavery. In 1791 the slaves revolted, and in 1804, after defeating Napoleon's forces, they founded the first independent black republic.

French slave owners demanded compensation. In 1825, the French monarch Charles X demanded Haiti pay an ''independence debt'' of 150 million gold francs - 10 times the fledgling nation's annual revenue. Haiti was still paying off this debt in 1947.

In 2004, a lawsuit launched by Haiti to recover the money was abandoned when France backed the overthrow of the government. Campaigners say the debt was illegal even in 1825, because when the original demand for compensation was made slavery was outlawed.

Their letter says: ''The 'independence debt', which is today valued at well over €17 billion … illegitimately forced a people who had won their independence in a successful slave revolt to pay again for their freedom.

''In light of the urgent financial need in the country in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, we urge you to pay Haiti, the world's first black republic, the restitution it is due.''

The letter has also been signed by members of parliament from Europe, Canada and the Philippines.

GUARDIAN