French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said a joint commission of French and Haitian historians would investigate the legacy of the “heavy price” Haiti was made to pay for its independence, two centuries after France extracted a crippling indemnity from its former colony. His statement made no mention of Haitian demands for reparations for the ransom imposed on the first people in the modern world to free themselves from slavery.
It should have been a joint quest for liberty, equality, fraternity. Instead, it was a history of vengeance and enduring injustice.
French President Emmanuel Macron lamented the failure to “strike a common path” with Haiti on Thursday in a statement marking 200 years since the French King Charles X extracted a punitive indemnity from former slaves who had already won their freedom in battle.
The indemnity placed “a price on the freedom of a young Nation, which was thereby confronted, from its inception, with the unjust force of History”, the French president acknowledged.
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Haitians’ successful struggle “was in harmony with the ideals of the French Revolution and should have enabled France and Haiti to strike a common path”, he said, blaming a revanchist monarchy for dashing those hopes.
Made up of French and Haitian historians, the commission will propose recommendations to appease tensions and strengthen ties between the two countries, he added.
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