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<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b><br><br>
<i>From: Haitian Lawyer's Leadership Network<br>
Action: Please circulate widely<br>
</i></b>Date: June 6, 2004 <br>
Subject: Campaign 7, Restitution of 22 billion from France<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html</a><br>
</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>********<br><br>
<b><i>FRANCE Must Return the Charles X Ransom to Haiti: <br>
Open Letter to the People of France<br><br>
</i></b>(Please Answer Call to Action Petition at End of Letter)
<br><br>
June 6, 2004 <br><br>
Citizen of France, you are probably unaware that your government is
<br>
currently committing a number of crimes against Haitians (1), an
impoverished <br>
people whose history has some very unfortunate and unpleasant connections
to <br>
that of your own. We take this opportunity to alert you to this fact and
to <br>
call upon your sense of honor to disavow and help redress the wicked and
<br>
despicable actions that the government of Jacques Chirac and Jean-Pierre
Raffarin <br>
have thus far committed, in your name, against Haiti. <br><br>
On April 7, 2003, A Constitutional Haitian Head of State issued a <br>
public demand (2) that, as a matter of honor and justice, France finally
<br>
settles an outstanding debt towards Haiti by returning the outrageous
1825 ransom. <br>
The latter was collected at gunpoint from the Africans who had broken the
chains <br>
of racial slavery on the former French colony of Saint-Domingue and had
<br>
created the free Republic of Haiti. Indeed, in 1825, under the threat of
<br>
re-enslavement, and with 12 warships armed with 500 canons, France
blackmailed Haiti into <br>
agreeing to pay a bounty of 150 million Gold Francs for the lost of
<br>
men, women and children they had deemed to be "French property"
(slaves). That ransom <br>
(lowered to 90 million francs), estimated at over $22 billion (US) today,
<br>
extorted from Haiti by France and which tiny Haiti had to pay while
France sold off <br>
Louisiana to the U.S. for only 15 million francs (Louisiana then <br>
virtually doubled Haiti's size), that vengeful weight put upon the
shoulders of Africans <br>
digging themselves out of 300-years of white imposed slavery, forced
illiteracy <br>
and other inhumane physical and psychological trauma, virtually began the
<br>
colonial model of debt dependency that was then used throughout the
African <br>
continent after their "independence". Therefore, to say that
the Charles X Ransom <br>
had a devastating and lasting impact on the impoverished people of Haiti
<br>
would be a gross understatement. Decades after decades, Haiti had no
money for <br>
social spending and development and had to close its rural schools, adopt
the <br>
Rural Code which further systematized the class divisions (between rural
and city <br>
folks) and bound the majority to work the land to pay off a hideous,
racist <br>
and unfair debt. <br><br>
On February 29, 2004, the Constitutional Head of State who issued <br>
Haiti's restitution demand, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced out of
office <br>
amidst great controversy. Solid evidence (3) now points to French and
American <br>
complicity in the illegal and violent activities surrounding this blatant
coup <br>
d'etat. As a matter of fact, just hours following the abduction of its
<br>
constitutional Head of State, French and American troops were occupying
Haiti and <br>
helping local mercenaries quell public dissent against a U.S.&
French-imposed puppet <br>
regime. <br><br>
To add insult to injury, on April 15, 2004, Michà le Alliot-Marie, <br>
newly appointed French Minister of Defense lands in Port-au-Prince as the
<br>
first French dignitary of high rank to come to Haiti since the triumph of
the <br>
anti-slavery revolution in 1803. On the heel of that oddly-timed visit,
Mrs. <br>
Alliot-Marie obtains a public declaration by Haiti's now illegal regime
that <br>
restitution of the Charles X Ransom is no longer at issue. A month later,
on Saturday <br>
May 15, 2004, Michel Barnier, your current Minister of Foreign Affairs,
would <br>
also land in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, repeated attempts by the U.S to
bully the <br>
Caribbean Community, the African Union and the U.S. Congressional Black
<br>
Caucus to follow their lead and recognize the puppet regime they
installed in <br>
Haiti remain fruitless (4). Simply put, the racist stains of this illegal
<br>
regime change are simply too blatant to be overlooked. <br><br>
This latest criminal Franco-American partnership painfully reminds <br>
Africans worldwide that in 1805, one year following Haiti's declaration
of <br>
freedom and independence, French foreign minister Prince Charles
Talleyrand wrote <br>
to U.S. Secretary of State James Madison "The existence of a Negro
people in <br>
arms is a horrible spectacle for all white nations" ? Back then, the
United <br>
States answered this open call to white supremacist solidarity by banning
<br>
trade with Haiti in 1806 and renewing its embargo in 1807 and 1809. Since
then, this <br>
form of solidarity in wickedness would be renewed several times over as
France, <br>
the U.S., Germany and Spain would take turns ransoming Haiti at gunpoint
<br>
throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Now here we are in 2004, when the
U.S. and <br>
France have joined hands to abduct Haiti's democratically elected
president <br>
and established in its stead an illegal puppet regime to once again keep
<br>
the Haitian people in check (5), (6). A regime that is so willing to
trample the <br>
rights of Haiti's black majority in exchange for the continued approval
of its <br>
U.S.-Euro master puppeteers, that it has now vowed to erase France's huge
and <br>
infamous debt known as "the Charles X Ransom" . <br><br>
As we submit this letter to your attention, we are mindful of a recent
<br>
declaration of elder Nelson Mandela who observed that "we now live
in a <br>
world where powerful countries - all of them so-called democracies -
manipulate <br>
multilateral bodies to the great disadvantage and suffering of the <br>
poorer developing nations". Consequently, we do realize that this
matter of restitution <br>
to Haiti of the Charles X Ransom holds little chance of being
satisfactorily <br>
resolved at the United Nations any time soon. And so, we, world citizens
of good <br>
will, have taken the initiative to affirm and bring to your reflection
the <br>
following facts: <br><br>
<br>
1) Restitution of the Charles X ransom is and will remain an issue that
<br>
shames the people of France until it is justly resolved to the economic
<br>
advantage of the People of Haiti. <br><br>
2) The people of France must not be and shall no longer be kept in the
<br>
dark about this historical debt and its terrible lasting consequences on
<br>
generations upon generations of Haitians. <br><br>
3) The current leaders of France are guilty of shameful and criminal
<br>
attempts to cover-up their legal and moral obligations with respect to
the <br>
Charles X Ransom. They do so, chiefly, by propping up, with U.S.
complicity, an <br>
illegal puppet regime in Haiti that has proven to be their willing
partner in <br>
crime. <br><br>
All these illegal actions were taken in your name, people of France,
<br>
albeit without your direct approval. <br><br>
So, having now been apprised of the facts, we invite you to join a <br>
noble quest for long overdue justice by endorsing the following petition
<br>
which summons the legal representatives of the State of France to return
to the State <br>
of Haiti, the Charles X Ransom. <br><br>
N.B.: The fact that the current holders of political power in Haiti are
<br>
illegal and un-elected does not constitute valid ground to delay this
<br>
restitution. The ransomed funds can be immediately deposited in a safe
account to <br>
collect interest until it can be accessed by its rightful owner, the
People of <br>
Haiti, through constitutional authorities that are duly appointed to
manage <br>
its affairs. <br><br>
"In this generation, we will have to repent not only for the hateful
<br>
words and actions of the bad people, but also for the appalling silence
of <br>
the good people" <br><br>
Mindful of these inspirational words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and,
<br>
in the name of justice and human decency, the Haitian Lawyers Leadership
<br>
invites you to please sign this important petition : <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/restitution4haiti/">http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/restitution4haiti/</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
(ENGLISH) <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/restitutionpourhaiti/">http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/restitutionpourhaiti/</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
(FRANÇAIS) <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Restitisyonpouayiti/">http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Restitisyonpouayiti/</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
(KREYOL) <br><br>
or at:
</font><a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignseven.html"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignseven.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
<br>
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network <br><br>
June 6, 2004 <br>
For more information: <br>
Contact Our Campaign 7 Leadership Network Coordinator <br>
Mr. Jean Saint- Vil (Jafrikayiti) <br>
E-mail:
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u>Jafrikayiti@hotmail.com</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br>
cc:
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u>Erzilidanto@aol.com</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
References: <br><br>
1) While Trying to Send Aristide Back to Africa, U.S. and France Thwart
<br>
UN <br>
Investigation of Haiti Coup <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.haitiprogres.com/2004/sm040421/eng04-21.html">http://www.haitiprogres.com/2004/sm040421/eng04-21.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
2) 1803 -2003 "Restitution – Reparation" par Haiti Progrà s
<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.haitiprogres.com/2003/sm030409/index.html">http://www.haitiprogres.com/2003/sm030409/index.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
3) THE DESTABILIZATION OF HAITI BY MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html">http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
4) Caribbean Community (CARICOM) resisting the bullies! <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.haiti-progres.com/top05-26.html">http://www.haiti-progres.com/top05-26.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
5) Washington and Paris overthrow Aristide <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.voltairenetwork.net/article7.html">http://www.voltairenetwork.net/article7.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
<br><br>
6) International Politics and Haiti in 2004 <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.ph...d_Haiti_in_2004">http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.ph...d_Haiti_in_2004</a><br><br>
<br>
</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>*********<br>
Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership<br>
******<br>
"Men anpil chaj pa lou" ÂÂ is Kreyol for - "Many hands
make light a <br>
heavy load."<br><br>
See, The Haitian Leadership Networks' ÂÂ 7 "men anpil chaj
pa<br><br>
lou" campaigns to help restore Haiti's independence, the will of the
<br>
mass <br>
electorate and the rule of law. See, <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/haitianlawyers.html">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/haitianlawyers.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
; <br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html<br><br>
</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>and
Haitiaction.net <br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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