News Information

• NEWS_POSTED_BY: Haiti Place
• NEWS_POSTED_ON: May 24, 2015
• Views : 682
• Category : Haiti News
• Description : Published 12 May 2015
  
  Photo: President Francois Hollande speaking at the inauguration of the slavery memorial ACTe, in Guadeloupe | Photo: Reuters
• Location : Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
• Website : http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/France-Clarifies-It-Wont-Repay-Haitis-Independence-Debt-20150511-0032.html

Overview

• The French forced compensation on the island after its independence in 1825 and many are demanding France to pay it back. French President Francois Hollande confirmed on Tuesday that his country wouldn’t be repaying the historic independence debt owed to Haiti. ​
  
  Speaking at Port-Au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city, on Tuesday, the French president referred only to France's "moral debt."
  
  "We cannot change the past, but we can change the future," added Hollande.
  
  On Sunday, in Guadeloupe, Hollande said he would pay the debt owed to Haiti, but later retracted claiming he was referring only to a “moral debt.”
  
  The historical debt dates back to 1825, when the French government demanded a fee from Haiti in order to recognize its liberation as an independent nation. The fee of 150 million gold francs, later reduced to 90 million gold francs, was at the time 10 times the size of Haiti’s annual income and is thought to be worth about US$20 billion today. Haiti was paying France back until 1947.
  
  The government of Haiti issued an official demand to France in 2004 to pay back the money. Haitian President Michel Martelly insisted the debt should be payed, stressing that it was a "grave injustice" that prevented Haiti from developing as fast as others.
  
  The sum charged by the French was based on the amount demanded by slaveholders in compensation for loss of property. According to several experts, by the time France issued its 1825 Ordinance, slavery had already been abolished.
  
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