Head of Haiti's interim government calls for reparations at the United Nations

By arseniotoledo // 2024-10-03

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The head of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Sept. 26 to demand "historical reparations" for his country. TPC Chairman Edgard Leblanc Fils used his time speaking before the UNGA to appeal for "global solidarity," claiming that, as the world's first independent Black nation, Haiti "is today the greatest victim of a historical injustice, which has not only delayed our development but saddled our people with a burden." (Related: Around 5% of Haiti's entire population has migrated to the U.S. since 2020.) "We demand recognition of the moral and historic debt and implementation of justice," Leblanc Fils added. Leblanc Fils' call for reparations comes in the context of the new UN-led peacekeeping mission in Haiti meant to help stabilize the anarchy-wracked nation. The chairman wants reparations to help guarantee funds for this peacekeeping and security support mission which has a contingent of around 400 Kenyan police officers. A total of 2,500 security personnel are expected to arrive in Haiti in the coming weeks and months. The largest contingent comes from Kenya and they will be supported by police and soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica. "The [reparations] would not only allow [us] to secure more stable financing and to expand the capabilities of the mission, but also strengthen the commitment of [UN] member states to security in Haiti," said Leblanc Fils. "I am convinced that this change of status, while ensuring that errors of the past are not repeated, will guarantee the full success of the mission in Haiti."

Haiti has been demanding reparations for decades

Haiti's demand for reparations is not new. Specifically, the country has been calling on its former colonial ruler, France, to repay the billions in debt it was forced to pay Paris for nearly a century. In 2004, during Haiti's bicentennial, then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide publicly called on France to repay the approximately 112 million gold francs Haiti was forced to pay to secure its independence. Today, that amount is estimated to be worth around $115 billion. Haiti began paying its "independence debt" in 1825, just 21 years after Haiti won its independence from France. The country only fully paid off the debt in 1947 after French banks and the National City Bank of New York – present-day Citibank – helped finance the loan payments. "This ransom imposed under threat siphoned off resources of a young nation, plunging it into an infernal cycle of impoverishment, which it still struggles to overcome," said Leblanc Fils. The chairman emphasized how it needs the reparations to end the rampant violence gripping Haiti, which has fueled one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in the modern age, with nearly half of the country's estimated 12 million residents at risk of going hungry. "The increase of armed gangs, general violence and political instability have plunged the nation into a state of extreme vulnerability," said Leblanc Fils. "Citizens live in fear, unable to move around freely throughout the country, to go and work or send their children to school without risk, particularly in the capital of Port-au-Prince." Watch this video from commentator John Williams warning about how billionaires want to take advantage of the chaos in Haiti to turn the country into their personal playground. This video is from the ThisIsJohnWilliams channel on Brighteon.com.

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Haiti has been demanding reparations for decades

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