Dr. Paul Farmer's testimony: Twelve points in favor of the restitution of the French debt to Haiti

Dr. Paul Farmer's testimony in France before the Regis Debray
Commission established by President Jacques Chirac to investigate Haiti's
claim for restitution.

Paris, November 3, 2003
http://ijdh.org/articles/article_recent_news_8-2-06.php

 

Twelve points in favor of the restitution of the French debt to Haiti
By Paul Farmer,

Medical professor at Harvard Medical School
Medical Director, Bon Sauveur Clinic, Central Plateau, Haiti

I thank you for inviting me to speak with you. I believe the Haitian
government is pressing France to refund the indemnity given by Haiti,
starting in 1825, twenty years after the Haitian revolution, that began in
1791 and lead to the country's independence.

Haiti, maybe more than any other nation, can give powerful arguments in
favor of the restitution of the French debt. First, let me specify a
few things. It is your invitation I answer today and not an appeal from
any government. I am a doctor and American anthropologist and I have
been working in Haiti's central region for twenty years. I am here in
front of you today because I believe that the terrible suffering I see in
our clinics and hospitals mainly have social causes, most of them rooted
in slavery and in the foreign policy of great powers. In order to put
an end to this unnecessary suffering, there must be social answers such
as restitution of the debt and reparations. And so it is a great honor
for me, being a doctor worried about the immediate as well as historic
causes of suffering and sickness, to speak before you.

In a perspective of public health, capital movements that are displayed
in parallel of deep inequalities (from a former slave colony devastated
by war to one of the world's most powerful nations, for example) are
one of the main causes of today's misery. These transfers from the poor
to the rich still take place today, although they are a little more
subtle. They have the benediction of some international financial
institutions. But I am convinced that it is possible to stop or at least to
minimize these unhealthy and inopportune practices. I wouldn't be here if I
didn't think that there is still a small hope that the French
authorities take into account the history in this case and that they do what's
right.

The health situation in Haiti today

To those who argue that all this is history, we can say in opposition
that it is the weight of history that leads to the present situation in
Haiti. I will give a short overall view in six main points of this
situation in my fields of competence, public health and medicine.

First, nobody denies today that Haiti has the worst health indexes of
the American continent, and in fact, these indexes are among the worst
in the world. That is not new but many things could have been done to
improve this situation. My own clinical practice reminds me every day
that we can prevent and cure almost all the main causes of deaths in
Haiti, as long as we act in time. In Haiti's central region, we made it
because we imported tools of modern medicine and we work in collaboration
with public authorities to give treatment to sick destitute people. But
the national situation is deplorable. A few figures: the infant
mortality rate is 81%, a number that keeps going up; in comparison, it is 4%
in France and 7% in Cuba. The child mortality death rate, meaning the
number of Haitian children who die before their fifth birthday, rise to
125%; in France, it is 5%.

The maternal mortality rate, which means women who die giving birth, is
very low in developed countries. Almost all those deaths occur among
poor women in poor countries. Once again, Haiti has some of the most
disastrous figures in the world: official reports state a rate of 520
deaths for 100,000 births. A few years ago, an investigation among the
population in the southeast of the country estimated that rate at over
1,400. In Cuba, the neighboring country, this figure is at 33; in France, at
10.

HIV quickly became the major infectious disease to cause death among
adults. The World Bank estimates that 5% of the Haitian population is
infected. This number is only at 0,1% in Cuba. Despite its important
infection, Haiti is the country that has the least resources in the American
continent to fight this pandemic. On the exception of our work in the
Central Plateau, the country has no structure for appropriate prevention
nor global taking in charge. With an original approach, including both
prevention and appropriate care, already adopted in the Central Plateau
with the support of the public health care system, this procedure could
be extended throughout the country. Unfortunately, this system cannot
play this role at all because it has no financial means. So the NGOs
benefit from all the resources.

Haiti also seems to be the country where there is the most malaria in
the region, a disease eradicated in its neighboring countries, Cuba and
Jamaica. Concerning tuberculosis, we have completed a study in the
center of the country where we found a rate of 357 cases for 100,000
persons, which is once again the highest rate on the American continent. The
problem of tuberculosis is even more serious in Haitian cities where
HIV infections are concentrated: indeed, the virus revives the latent
infectious tuberculosis and epidemic tuberculosis is now progressing very
quickly in shantytowns.

Malnutrition is at the heart of many of these problems. According to
the World Bank, Haiti is indeed the country where there is the most
hunger in the world, after Somalia and Afghanistan.

Secondly, these appalling figures have nothing to do with the Haitian
culture since the country has an epidemiological profile very different
from that of close former French colonies such as Guadeloupe and
Martinique, where life expectancy and the prevalence of epidemic diseases are
very much like the ones in metropolitan France. What a sour paradox it
would be to conclude that Haitians would be better off if they had
never freed themselves from the yoke of slavery! Not one Haitian who
respects himself or herself would say that, but the fact is that we can
easily see a continuous chain of causes and consequences between the
country's situation the day after the revolution and the situation today -- as
if Haitians continue to be punished for their ancestors' rebellion.
Since 1804, two centuries ago, Haiti has suffered under embargoes and
punishing politics which I will recall in details later.

Thirdly, the health situation in Haiti will certainly worsen more if
substantial investments are not quickly made in the public health system.
It is now time that resources flow back to Haiti, towards the country's
public institutions. We call that "international aid" but the word
"restitution" would be more appropriate. By sharing a little of its wealth
with its former colony, France could act in complete fairness in favor
of literacy, access to drinking water, infrastructure renovation and
health care. But international aid is not abundant. At this time when I
am speaking with you, an embargo with no name is pressing on
humanitarian aid and development aid meant for Haiti. Here are the facts, new in a
sense, but well known to Haitians.

Let us look at the case of the loans blocked by the Inter-American
Development Bank which I mentioned recently in Le Monde Diplomatique. I
learned that these loans were approved three years ago both by the Haitian
government and by the Bank's central committee. But no payment has been
made so far. One of these loans was intended for the public health
system, and the other three for teaching, for the improvement of access to
drinking water and the rebuilding of roads. Being an American doctor
working in Haiti, it seemed right to me to try to understand why. The
loans are suspended for "political reasons," they tell me. In May 2000, in
Haiti, general elections (legislative, senatorial and local) took
place. The election of eight senators was contested and some people demanded
the organization of new elections. Well, according to what I've learned
from Haitian sources as well as American ones, the United States asked
the Inter-American Development Bank directly to block the loans as long
as the dispute is not resolved.

It is tragic that France and other European countries followed the
United States in their decision to block the aid to Haitian public
authorities, while this procedure is a violation to the Inter-American
Development Bank's charter, which stipulates that the Bank is forbidden to
intervene in the State members' political affairs. A report from a French
colleague working for the Bank summed up the situation as follows: "On
the whole, the main reason for the economic stagnation is the
cancellation of subsidies and loans from foreign countries that came with the
international community's answer to the political situation dead-end."
These funds are estimated at over 500 million dollars.

Fourthly, there are many debates on the issue of the blocked aid
intended for Haiti. If leaders of the powerful countries that impose these
sanctions think they present their own point of view, I can assure you
that the facts are clear and they show a deep hypocrisy from the creditor
States. Look at my own government's declarations stating that there is
no embargo. I maintain that all you have to do is look in which
direction money is circulating (or rather is not circulating) between
Washington and Port-au-Prince. During the last decades, when the Duvalier or
military governments were in power, hundreds of millions of dollars
flowed into the Haitian power's coffers. Today, the elected government,
unpopular with the government of the United States as well as with the
Haitian elite, has to content itself with sums close to zero.

The Inter-American Development Bank pretended that the funds had been
blocked after a consensus reached by the Organization of American States
in its "Declaration of Quebec." But this document is dated April 22,
2001, while the United States' representative's letter to the
Inter-American Development Bank asking for the loans not to be given is dated
April 8, 2001. It is clear that the United States put pressure on the Bank
so that it backs their own political choices. To quote one of the few
journalists who considered that this scandal deserved to be investigated
"it seems that there was a consultation about that decision only after
it had been taken."

Presently, international financial institutions' schemes against Haiti
are discriminating and probably illegal. The press remained relatively
silent regarding this: the powerful people of this world can say what
they want without any risk of being questioned when the stakes are
considered unimportant.

That's not all. The Inter-American Development Bank demanded, among
other things, that Haiti, a ruined country, pay crushing arrears always
increasing because of increasing interest. The main part of those arrears
concerns loans granted to the Duvalier dictatorship and the military
governments that governed the country so brutally from 1986 to 1990, and
after a brutal coup d'etat, from 1991 to 1994. In July 2003, Haiti
transferred 90% of its reserve currency to Washington to pay these arrears.
To date, not one cent of these four loans has been given, despite the
many guarantees given by the Bank.

In the fifth place, this astounding repeat of illegal schemes of the
19th century (lawyers as well as poor Haitians will see that the payments
to the Inter-American Development Bank are an echo of the indemnities
given to France starting in 1825) is in a straight line with other
discriminating practices against Haiti and its population. I recently made a
list, for a medical magazine, of the many boycotts imposed to the
Haitian people after it refused to respect the rules of the game, rules that
accepted, even during the period of enlightenment, the trade of human
beings. This medical article, titled "The unfair embargo on the aid to
Haiti," is among the documents I put together for the Commission.

In the sixth place, your committee should be extremely cautious with
regard to the notices published in French and in English when those
notices can make people think that Haitians refused in any sort of way the
restitution of indemnities extorted by France many generations ago.
French is not all Haitians' mother tongue. We estimate that only 10% of the
population speak French while all Haitians speak Haitian Creole. Some
Haitians are opposed to the restitution, which can seem staggering. If
we listen to Haitian radio, we can soon guess that the only Haitians
opposed to the restitution are part of the political opposition, weak in
number, not very appreciated in the country but nevertheless with a
great influence on the international level. There are of course a few
bitter intellectuals who also declare they are against the restitution –
which is in accordance with the sociology of a country where social
classes are so deeply divided. However, the great majority of the
population, desperate with the country's terrible situation, is in favor of this
process.

Much of the analysis, notably those of French and American journalists,
presents Haiti's current problems as if they have nothing to do with
slavery, with racism, with war and two centuries of interior and exterior
hostility to popular democracy. The battle Haiti continues to fight
against hereditary or military dictatorships and against the brutal
neo-conservatism privileged by some international financial institutions, is
also a battle against the voluntary eclipse of history.

Historical roots of the current situation

Historians, and probably members of this committee know the facts:
These facts are hard to exonerate, even though many people have tried. In
the way it treats the Haitian issues, contemporary journalism shows
total irresponsibility. Let me underline, once again, six essential facts,
before I speak about the consequences of the 1825 indemnity on Haiti's
later development and its current suffering. I will of course stress on
the roots of the sanitary crisis the country is going through today.

First of all, Haiti is mostly a creation of France. By the Treaty of
Ryswick, signed in 1697, the western third of Santo-Domingo island was
given to France, who made it its most profitable colony within sixty
years. The main editor of the time, Moreau de Saint-Méry, described it as
follows: "The French part of the Santo-Domingo island is France's most
important possession in the New World because of the wealth it gives to
its metropolis and because of the influence it has on its agriculture
and its trade." In his book published in 1981 on the end of the Former
System, Olivier Bernier recalls what the source of this great profit
was: "French products were sent everywhere in the world, but very few
products made in foreign countries went into France. Most of the trade was
based on food products, tobacco and colonial products, sugar, spices,
rice, tea and coffee. That allowed some merchants, most of them from
Bordeaux, to make profit on a merchandise extremely profitable, called
"black gold" -- it was Black slaves. Most of the ships' managers
participated in the vile triangular trade, based on slaves, sugar and rum. They
prospered. The city of Bordeaux was almost completely rebuilt at the
end of the 18th century and it still cuts a fine figure. The money came
from the sale of human beings."

Second point, the French part of the Saint-Domingue island is known by
historians of slavery to be the most merciless colony of history.
During the second half of the 18th century, it was the main call for boats
carrying slaves. When they had lived through the crossing, one-third of
the newcomers died a few years later. Slaves were the great majority of
the population and the masters lived in continuous fear of a rebellion.

Third point, Haitians conquered their independence with arms. We saw
masters free their slaves towards the end of the French revolution but
only after slaves themselves took their situation in hand, in 1791. As
proven in the archives, Napoleon thought later of restoring France's
power on the colony and reestablishing slavery.

The fourth point, almost all of the world's powers took France's side
against Haiti, the first nation to declare itself as a hiding country
for fugitive slaves but also for native people (Haiti's native people had
died long before the Treaty of Ryswick, in a holocaust caused by
infectious diseases and Spanish pro-slavery). The first independent nation in
Latin America and second in the "New World," Haiti was surrounded by
slave colonies. The country had only one independent neighbor, the United
States, owners of slaves themselves. They refused to recognize Haiti's
sovereignty. The diplomatic recognition took a long time to come. A
senator in South Carolina, speaking in front of his peers in 1824,
declared, "Our politics towards Haiti is simple: we will never recognize its
independence." The peace and security of a great part of the Union
prevents us from even considering it." At the end of the 19th century, the
United States took France's place and the American military occupation,
from 1915 to 1934, made my country become the dominant power in Haitian
affairs in the 20th century. These are the facts.

During the first decades of the independence, the Haitian economy in
ruin continued to depend on coffee, sugar and other products, none of
which were intended for local consumption. As long as the great powers
refused to recognize Haiti's sovereignty, the leaders of the country saw
the national economy trapped in inequitable commercial relations.

It is also important to underline, like Moreau de Saint-Mercy did
before the revolution, the irreparable ecological damage caused by single
crop farming practiced by French planters during the 18th century. As for
the sanitary situation after the independence war, Dr. Ary Bordes
summed it up as follows: cities and large villages were unhealthy, lacking
drinking fountains and latrines; refuse was accumulating in the streets.
Most of the plantation hospitals were destroyed; only military
hospitals in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitian were running. Almost all doctors,
surgeons and pharmacists had left the island. Only Black people who had
worked in the destroyed hospitals, midwives, healers and bonesetters
still gave rare health care. With very little training, they were facing
a population just freed from slavery, generally living in primitive
huts, without water or latrines, weakened and decimated by contagious
diseases against which it was badly protected. And the doctor concluded:
"Overwhelming legacy left by our former masters, craving for profit and
caring very little for the native population's life or health
conditions." The current sanitary situation shows a disturbing similarity with
this legacy of the past.

The fifth point, even if it is impossible to evaluate the cost of
slavery (three and a half centuries of destruction of lives and families,
but also of cultures and languages), the "French debt" can perfectly be
quantified. In 1825, Charles X accepted to recognize Haiti's
independence on the condition that the new republic pay 150 million francs to
France -- the annual budget of the French government at the time -- and cut
its customs taxes in half. Other people than me will give you precise
information on the amounts that were actually paid, but you must know
that such a demand was illegal with regard to the French law. Indeed, the
French ultimatum came with explicit threats to use force and to
reestablish slavery. But France had already signed a treaty (Treaty of Vienna,
1815) in which, even though slavery was not abolished in places where
it already existed, it was expressly forbidden to establish it on new
territories or to reintroduce it where it had been abolished, like in
Haiti. And so the threat that had presided in the negotiations was
completely outside of the law.

The sixth point, the consequences of the payment of the debt on the
Haitian society of the 19th century was devastating. In Haiti, the results
are heavy: anthropologist Jean Price-Mars denounced in 1953 the Haitian
leaders who had given in to French demands: "The incompetence and
thoughtlessness of the men in power made a country where expenses and
revenues were balanced up until then, become a nation overburdened with debts
and tangled up in financial obligations impossible to respect." In
France, opinions on the issue were different at the time, according to the
people's political convictions. Victor Schoelcher, who fought to
abolish slavery, considered that to impose the payment of an indemnity to
victorious slaves was just like asking them to pay with money what they
had already paid with their blood. Even those who benefited from the
agreement knew that it was a fatal blow to the Haitian economy. Alexandre
Delaborde, former colonist in Saint-Domingue, admitted in 1833 that
these 150 million francs represented three times the value of the entire
colony. And so, where does the payment of the indemnity and customs
concessions stand in the long list of tragedies that weigh down the Haitian
people? Very high up, in my opinion.

Restitution and reparations

While Haiti is getting ready to celebrate the bicentennial of its
independence, it seems fair to me to wonder if the "international community"
will continue to cut off the country or will it choose to make amends
to the longest succession of abuse towards this one and only nation in
history? France and the United States are the two countries where that
question should be asked with the most strength.

I cannot conclude without a word about the reparations for slavery
itself. Experts tell me that the procedures for reparations, undertaken
these last few years by slaves' descendants, come up against two
obstacles: slavery was not illegal in France at the time and, second difficulty,
these reparations represent enormous amounts for rich countries
(comparable, at the very least, to those that American cigarettes makers were
condemned to pay, not including interest). Reparations should be
extended to the entire American continent and the African continent. Beyond
the easy legal arguments, let's underline that the restitution of the
debt is a much less complicated issue than the reparations, and that it
is quite manageable for France. The amount can be calculated without
great difficulties and the beneficiaries are easy to name. It is a lot
less complicated than trying to estimate a reparation for a Central
African country, for example, that lost part of its population when an
African slave trafficker took away inhabitants to sell them to a Portuguese
trafficker who then sold those captives in Haiti.

Our world will become a better world if we pursue the idea of
reparations. Legal obstacles can be by-passed, and that is known by everyone
with good intentions who, by the coincidence of their birth, have power
today. But these are circles where good intentions are rare. And we have
every reason to fear that if reparations are paid one day, they will go
to slaves' descendants who are relatively rich who live in the United
States, in France or in England, a country who, with Spain and Portugal,
were the main architects of slavery in the New World.

I am going back to Haiti tomorrow and I am not very optimistic about my
capacity, as a doctor, to significantly change the sanitary crisis I
described here and elsewhere. I brought with me ten files with documents
that detail and support what I told you today, because justice must be
done. For a doctor, working in Haiti, in a country that continues to
suffer from abuses from the most powerful nations in the world, is a
little like trying to stop a sea wall with fingers. But I have a great debt
towards this country that made me a better doctor, at least I hope, and
that taught me to think in a more critical way. The medical team I am
part of will never stop treating sick poor people. Public teachers,
teachers, lead a similar battle in their field. We do not represent the
Haitian State but we work together with the Ministries of Health and of
Education, which must become responsible again for the access to health
care and teaching for everyone. We need allies and an answer to the
following question: will the happy winners of the world's history settle in
their distressing routine or will they finally break off from cruel,
corrupted and racist politics? Will they finally give back to Haiti the
price of its blood? Haitians are getting ready to commemorate the
bicentennial of their country's independence but they believe that they have
been punished, for two centuries, for daring to shake their chains. The
past and present history prove they are right.

Once again, thank you for asking for my advice.


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