By ROBERT MACKEY Published: July 16, 2010
A group calling itself the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted From Haiti took responsibility on Friday for an elaborate hoax this week in which an actor posing as a French government spokesman announced that France would reimburse Haiti money it had been forced to pay after winning its independence in the 19th century. The fake announcement was posted Wednesday on a near-replica of the French Foreign Ministry’s Web site. The ministry said it was considering legal action against the site’s creators, who identified themselves in a statement as “a group of activists from France, Canada and the United States.” They said France did owe Haiti $21,685,135,571.48, the sum the Haitian government asked France to pay it in 2003, to make up for 90 million gold francs it was forced to pay French landowners driven out by the revolution.
That was one of Aristide’s more brilliant moves.
He used at a time of pressure to remove the focus from him, and place the spotlight directly on the French.