Haiti Place Hollande in Haiti to promise help from resented France

News Information

  • NEWS_POSTED_BY: Haiti Place
  • NEWS_POSTED_ON: May 24, 2015
  • Views : 567
  • Category : Haiti News
  • Description : By Amélie Baron, Sabine Wibaux
    May 12, 2015 4:52 PM

    Photo: French President Francois Hollande is received by the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly in Port-au-Prince on May 12, 2015 (AFP Photo/Hector Retamal)
  • Location : Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
  • Website : http://news.yahoo.com/frances-hollande-calls-end-us-embargo-cuba-152942834.html

Overview

  • Port-au-Prince (AFP) - President Francois Hollande arrived in Haiti on Tuesday to boost France's role in what was once its richest Caribbean possession but is now a desperately poor nation with a bitter colonial legacy.

    Haiti's President Michel Martelly rolled out the red carpet at the airport for his Parisian counterpart, but Hollande's visit provoked small demonstrations by protesters demanding France pay damages for its past wrongs in Haiti.

    "No negotiation, no compensation can repair the wounds of history that still mark us today," Martelly told Hollande in a speech before an invited audience of dignitaries in the capital Port-au-Prince.

    "Haiti has not forgotten, but Haiti is not stubborn," he added, attempting to put an end to a fierce debate in Haiti about whether it can rebuild relations with its former colonial power without demanding reparations.

    Hollande, in turn, promised Martelly that France would finance a large-scale program to modernize Haiti's education system, but steered clear of the question of a multi-billion-euro cash payout.

    "You're not asking for aid, you want development," he told Haitians. "You're not asking for welfare, you want investment."