Haiti is demanding reparations from France to compensate for the losses the country suffered during its independence. This statement was made by the Chairman of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti, Edgar Leblanc Fil, at the UN General Assembly.
“On January 1, 1804, General Jean-Jacques Desallines, the founding father of our homeland, made human rights universal when he declared the independence of Haiti… We set in motion the process of eliminating the colonial order and slavery,” he noted, calling Haiti “the world’s first independent country of blacks.”
Historical injustice has slowed the country's development: in 1825, Haiti was forced to pay a colossal ransom to France in exchange for recognition of independence, which plunged the country into a “vicious circle of impoverishment,” Fiel said.
“This debt became a form of punishment for the courage with which the Haitians freed themselves from the shackles of slavery,” the speaker emphasized.
According to the Haitian leader, his country is seeking justice.
“We call for recognition of the moral and historical debt and implementation of the necessary reparations that will allow our people to free themselves from the invisible shackles of this unjust past,” Fiel said.
In July, the First Congress of Movements for the Independence of the Territories Colonized by France was held in Baku, which brought together leaders of more than 15 political parties and movements for the independence of Corsica, Melanesia, Polynesia, the group of Caribbean and Antilles islands that suffered from French colonialism.
