restitution

Aristide pushes for restitution from France Haiti's leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, sends France a bill for $21 billion.

The money, he said, will be used to build and renovate schools, hospitals and roads.

Almost 200 years after rebellious slaves drove a humiliated French army from Haiti, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has fired the first shot in a new battle with France.

Television and radio spots demanding that France Hand over my dollars so I can celebrate my independence! are pervasive in Haiti as proponents argue the money is part of the reparations France should pay for the colonial crimes it committed during Haiti's enslavement.

Television and radio spots demanding that France Hand over my dollars so I can celebrate my independence! are pervasive in Haiti as proponents argue the money is part of the reparations France should pay for the colonial crimes it committed during Haiti's enslavement.

CRITICISM In Haiti, some critics -- including a group of more than 50 intellectuals, artists and writers -- have denounced the campaign as propaganda by a cash-strapped government seeking to deflect attention from its greater woes.

To make the payments, the Haitian government contracted with French banks that charged exorbitant interest rates, and retooled its entire economy into a tribute to France.

Today, tomorrow, we will win the battle of restitution, Aristide said last month in a speech commemorating the Battle of Vertieres, the slave revolt near Cap-Haitien two centuries ago that marked the completion of Haiti's revolt against France.

He said he had great sympathy for the Haitian people but warned ``before bringing up claims of this nature, I cannot stress enough to the authorities of Haiti the need to be very vigilant about, how should I say, the nature of their actions and their regime.

In the months leading up to Jan. 1 bicentennial celebrations, Aristide has launched a controversial campaign to get France to repay its former colony billions of dollars in restitution.

To make the payments, the Haitian government contracted with French banks that charged exorbitant interest rates, and retooled its entire economy into a tribute to France.

The Haitian government says the money is the modern-day equivalent of the ransom, 90 million gold francs (originally set at 150 million gold francs) that Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay France.

He said he had great sympathy for the Haitian people but warned ``before bringing up claims of this nature, I cannot stress enough to the authorities of Haiti the need to be very vigilant about, how should I say, the nature of their actions and their regime.

FRANCE DISMISSIVE The French are dismissing the campaign, although France has dispatched one of its foremost intellectuals, Régis Debray, to Port-au-Prince to examine Haitian-French relations as part of a Committee on Reflection of Haiti.

To make the payments, the Haitian government contracted with French banks that charged exorbitant interest rates, and retooled its entire economy into a tribute to France.

CRITICISM In Haiti, some critics -- including a group of more than 50 intellectuals, artists and writers -- have denounced the campaign as propaganda by a cash-strapped government seeking to deflect attention from its greater woes.

Today, tomorrow, we will win the battle of restitution, Aristide said last month in a speech commemorating the Battle of Vertieres, the slave revolt near Cap-Haitien two centuries ago that marked the completion of Haiti's revolt against France.