00:00It was 200 years ago today, France's king, Charles X, formally recognizing the independence of Haiti,
00:18independence from France that had been earned in a bloody war of independence two decades earlier.
00:23In exchange, though, Port-au-Prince's new authorities agreeing to crippling compensation.
00:28There are varying numbers, but it's an estimated 30 billion euros in today's money, say some economists.
00:36Well, the French president for this 200th anniversary, recognizing the injustice of that compensation
00:45and naming a joint commission of historians to evaluate the price of freedom.
00:52He stopped shy for now, Emmanuel Macron, of talking about reparations.
00:57Caroline Baum has more.
00:58On April 17, 1825, France recognized Haitian independence in exchange for 150 million gold francs,
01:07a huge sum of the time, in what it called compensation for former colonists.
01:12It immediately plunged the newly independent nation into suffocating debt.
01:17Two hundred years later, Haiti is one of the most dangerous countries in the world,
01:21where people regularly fall victim to looting and attacks in an ongoing gang war.
01:26Frustrated Haitians took to the street Wednesday in Port-au-Prince, a city 85 percent controlled by gangs.
01:32Haitian people want to see development. We've been waiting for it for a long time. We see that gangs are everywhere. We're going to storm the prime minister's office. The presidential council is keeping the country and the population hostage.
01:49Haiti, ruled by a transitional government since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, has been plagued by gang violence for years.
01:58Protesters are demanding protection by the government from the brutality that has killed thousands and left over one million homeless.
02:07The UN says the situation is only getting worse.
02:10There are now a million people who have been displaced. I had the chance to see some of the humanitarian sites, the sites for the displaced people in the capital.
02:20And you just see thousands of people who are stacked one on top of the other in very, very tight quarters.
02:26The Haitian government announced a war budget of $275,000 Monday, primarily slated for police reinforcement, but also for small-scale social programs.
02:36The UN has called for over $650 million to address the humanitarian situation in Haiti.
02:42But funding is few and far between, especially in the context of recent cuts to American foreign aid.
02:57Thank you for speaking with us here on France 24.
03:00My pleasure.
03:01So, any reactions yet to this naming of a joint commission of historians to revisit what happened with the compensation that was paid by over a century and a half by Haiti?
03:16All the eyes of Haiti was on France today and all the newspapers this morning announcing that there was going to be this big announcement by the President Macron.
03:29So, today, yes, it seems like it's a pathway that is starting to emerge out of something that was denied by France for a long time.
03:41Now that the President of the country finally takes amends and says that it was a mistake is a big, big step here in Haiti.
03:54But still, the people are waiting for concrete measures, especially in a country where, like you said, the security situation is so dire right now.
04:05And the international force that is supposed to help the police, the local police in combatting the different criminal groups surrounding the capital is really underfinanced and understaffed, under-equipped.
04:22So, it's a kind of a dire, weird contrast that we see today, that finally France recognized that they have this big debt against the country, against Haiti, that has been there illegally, that has been put in place illegally by the colonists.
04:42And that was, for 125 years, really took the country down up until mid-20th century.
04:51And since then, we see all the consequences of all that.
04:55So, at least we talk about it.
04:57Still no numbers.
04:58That's what Haitians are waiting for.
05:01But still, it's a step forward.
05:03And now we're going to wait to see if the Americans are going to do the same, because they also stole money from Haiti.
05:10They stole the central bank.
05:12It's going to be 100 years and a few years from now.
05:15And it's a chapter of history that's rarely, if not never, talked about here in France, Etienne.
05:23It's only been coming to light recently.
05:26And we remember, all of us, this incident 10 years ago.
05:31The then French president, François Hollande, travels to the region.
05:36He goes to the French overseas island of Guadeloupe.
05:39He makes a speech for the marking of the inauguration of a museum to slavery, where he said, and I quote,
05:49When I will come to Haiti, it'll be my turn to settle up the debt that we have.
05:54Standing ovation.
05:55Yes.
05:56And he's forced to retract, because people thought the French were going to pay reparations.
06:00And that's what everybody thought here in Haiti.
06:03They thought that it was going to finally getting somewhere, finally getting a retribution for what France has stolen the country here in Haiti.
06:13And it was a big disappointment.
06:16And since even 20 years ago, the beginning of 2000, when the then president talked about it, it was a big diplomatic issue that was talked about in different embassies.
06:30So even though it was really, it was always something difficult for France to admit, it was something difficult because if you admit it, then you kind of agree that you owe something to the country.
06:45And that's what they didn't want to do. That's probably why he retracted himself in 2016, Hollande.
06:51But nowadays, this is a really symbolic day for Haitians. It's been 200 years, 125 years that they were forced to pay that debt.
07:03And now, at least the colonizer agrees that it was something illegal, that something that shouldn't have been done, because they, just to make it clear, they had to pay back for their own freedom.
07:17So it was the people here in Haiti that had to pay the colonizer for their own freedom because they were slaves, enslaved by France.
07:27And they said they needed reparation because of that. And they forced Haiti to sign this pact.
07:33They bring different ships surrounding the island in 1825 to pressure the government to make sure that they accept, seeing that they didn't have the power to push them back.
07:45So they had to agree to this thing that really here in Haiti feels like something that is due to the people.
07:55Like you said, about 30 billion that is owed to Haiti with interest. So it probably is even more.
08:07So how are you going to get to a number? And that's what this commission is going to try to assert.
08:15And now we're going to wait their conclusions. Something that has been criticized here in Haiti is that it's a bi-national commission, which means it's good that some Haitian historian might be part of it.
08:29But still they have their conclusions that will be given to both countries when we're all waiting for France's decision on that.
