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A Painful Reckoning
Haiti’s funds to its former slave masters added up for generations, costing its financial system billions of {dollars} over time, The Occasions evaluation discovered, and a little-known public financial institution referred to as the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations collected the overwhelming majority of the cash.
However after Haiti’s disastrous earthquake in 2010, Didier Le Bret, the French ambassador, mentioned the financial institution reached out to him to assist and, not less than partly, make amends: It donated about $400,000.
A spokesman for the financial institution mentioned the donation was merely a part of its coverage to assist nations bothered by humanitarian catastrophe. However Augustin de Romanet, the financial institution’s director on the time of the donation, instructed The Occasions that “there have been most likely some helpful issues to do towards Haiti, in view of what had occurred previously.”
The financial institution’s discreet gesture, nonetheless small, spoke to a broader phenomenon: Mr. Aristide has been out of energy since 2004, however his combat has pressured a gradual, usually painful, reckoning in France.
Lately, well-known intellectuals have spoken out in favor of restitution, and lecturers have more and more explored the financial and authorized elements of reparations. Final 12 months, France’s nationwide public analysis group revealed a database itemizing compensation paid to French slaveholders, together with those from Haiti.
Myriam Cottias, who oversaw the database, was a member of the French fee that dismissed Mr. Aristide’s requires restitution 20 years in the past. However she mentioned that her views had modified, and that reparations needs to be mentioned.
“The controversy, sure, it have to be raised,” she mentioned.
The French authorities have, at occasions, proven some willingness to handle this previous as nicely. In mid-December, France’s finance ministry hosted, for the primary time, a global symposium on the economics of slavery, with conferences focusing particularly on the historical past of Haiti’s funds to France.
However the public dialogue has concerned some rhetorical tightrope strolling.
In his 2015 speech, Mr. Hollande, France’s president, acknowledged that Haiti’s funds to its former slave masters have been typically referred to as “the ransom of independence.”
“After I come to Haiti,” he mentioned, “I’ll, in my opinion, repay the debt we have now.”
The gang earlier than him, which included African heads of state and the Haitian president, immediately stood up in applause.
“Folks cried,” recalled Michaëlle Jean, the previous secretary-general of the Worldwide Group of los angeles Francophonie, who attended the speech. “It was immense.”
A number of hours later, Mr. Hollande’s aides issued a significant caveat: Mr. Hollande was talking solely of a “ethical debt” France owed to Haiti, not a monetary one. The French authorities maintains the identical place at this time. (Mr. Hollande declined to remark for this text.)
France’s delicate stance towards Haiti displays a lingering uncertainty, at occasions a malaise, over the best way to handle the nation’s colonial and slave-owning previous. In 2016, France’s parliament symbolically repealed the 1825 ordinance that required the Haitian funds to former slaveholders — however stopped in need of contemplating any monetary restitution.
“One can’t, objectively, current the slightest argument that claims we owe nothing to Haiti,” Christiane Taubira, a justice minister in Mr. Hollande’s authorities, mentioned in an interview.
Wanting again, Mr. Aristide mentioned that his restitution marketing campaign had not less than led to French acknowledgments of its previous.
“If I hadn’t requested the query in 2003, most likely in 2015 François Hollande wouldn’t have admitted to the debt,” he mentioned.
“That was a step,” he mentioned. “It’s not completed.”
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