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We have a moral not financial debt to Haiti, François Hollande
Look at this picture. French government has a big load hanging on top of country. It is the Haiti debt that it owes and it involves restitution for the money the young nation was obligated to pay to France after they fought for their independence. Ironically, French president François Hollande who visited Haiti in May, 2015 stated that We have a moral not financial debt to Haiti".
Two hundred years ago, when Haiti became the first independent black republic after defeating the army of then French Monarchy, it vowed to pay the French ruler, King Charles X an "independence debt of 90 million gold coins". The extorted bounty was distributed among the white slave owners for the loss of "property" they claim to have suffered as a result of the abolitionist Haitian Revolution. Thus, the country was forced to pay most of its national wealth to the French for own freedom. This barbaric ransom was collected between 1825 and 1947 through a French ordinance that threatened to re-enslave self-liberated Africans. This could be a good reason for present suffering of the country. As per 2003 estimate, the Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide demanded $22 billion from France as the cost of restitution. On Saturday, May 9th, during the inauguration of the Caribbean Centre of Expressions and Memory of Trafficking and Slavery (ACTE) in Pointe-à- Pitre, Guadeloupe, the French President François Hollande had said that "in Haiti, I will pay the debt we have." Although his announcement received a rousing applause from the audience, but according to the French National Palace, nowhere he had mentioned that France would be repaying the Haitian independence ransom of $23 billion (at present value). His statement indicating moral debt only without mentioning any monetary value was criticized in Haiti because the collection of the ransom for independence is undoubtedly an act of immoral and illegal turpitude.
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