Thursday, July 29, 2010

France Sues Group That Said France Would Do the Right Thing

This story isn't hot off the presses, but I thought I'd bring it to the attention of anybody who didn't see it the first time around:
A group of Canadian, US and French activists calling itself the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti (CRIME) is taking credit for a fake announcement on July 14 implying that the French government will pay Haiti 21 billion USD in reparations.
...
The group today issued the following statement to the media:

The French government has stated that it is considering legal recourse against us.

This is very fitting, as it is our concern with crimes that led us to make this false announcement. We are the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti (in French, le Comité pour le Remboursement Immédiat des Montants Envolés » d’Haïti, and in both languages spelling CRIME).

But is a spoof website such a grave crime, compared to what the French have done in Haiti:

-The forcible capture, commerce, brutalization, torture, murder and enslavement of millions of Africans over more than two centuries

-Expropriating 90 million gold francs from Haiti as an indemnity for lost French slave-trade profits following Haiti’s independence, and saddling Haitians with an illegitimate debt that Haiti paid France for 122 years
...
- Promising to Haiti through pledged contributions to UN agencies, NGOS and the Red Cross some $180 million, but six months later, not one centime has been delivered to Haiti, according to the UN’s humanitarian aid tracking site Relief Web. Meanwhile the French secretary of state for overseas development traveled via private jet to a conference on aid for Haiti at a cost of $143,000.

We leave it to the court of world public opinion to judge: Who are the real criminals?
--CRIME

That lawsuit ought to be fun to watch as it blows up in the French government's face. I doubt they'll proceed with it.

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