News
France Unveils Bastille Day Framework Initiative for Haiti’s Reconstruction
Statement by Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs Spokesperson (Paris, July 14, 2010)
Ever since Haiti was ravaged by the devastating earthquake of January 12, France has called for international debt forgiveness for Haiti.
For too long, Haiti has been saddled with the burden of foreign debt. Her development crippled by foreign debt service payments, she has for too long staggered from catastrophe to catastrophe. The disaster that has befallen the Haitian people is clearly not merely the result of January’s eathquake. It is in part the result of long-term economic and social policies.
PRESS RELEASE
7/30/2010
French Foreign Ministry Attaché: Activists will "pay" for Haiti prank
CRIME responds to new threats
Following the Committee for the Repayment of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti (CRIME)'s first press conference on July 22, a man who identified himself only as "Olivier" from the French foreign ministry launched a campaign of intimidating late night phone calls and text messages to CRIME spokesperson Laurence Fabre's personal, unlisted, cell phone.
Last Saturday night, in a telephone call with Fabre, he stated that the French government was already moving forward with the prosecution of those behind the July 14 hoax announcement. "You don't know what the hell is going to happen to you," he told Fabre. Claiming to be "in contact with the people who will actually arrest you," he warned Fabre that "they" will "make you pay." (See below for audio.)
The telephone directory reveals the number from which the calls to Fabre were made to be the phone number of none other than the French foreign ministry's attaché for information systems and communications, Olivier Poudade.
Today, Fabre responded publicly to these threats:
"From the warships Charles X sent to extort financial compensation from Haiti for the slaves who had liberated themselves in the Haitian revolution, to the overthrow of a Haitian president who had the temerity to demand restitution, CRIME is familiar with the French government's history of violent retaliation on this issue. Even so, we are quite amazed at the peculiar lengths to which those working on this file at the French foreign ministry appear willing to go to punish those seeking to raise awareness about Haiti's independence debt."
"We urge the French government to publicly clarify whether the recent statements by the foreign ministry's attaché for information systems and communications about the government's legal action were the official position of his employer: Is France really prepared to take legal action over a spoof announcement that offered such a shining example of what the French government should do to honour the values of liberty, equality and fraternity?"
"If Mr. Poudade's statements were not his employer's official position, under what authority was the French foreign ministry's attaché acting?"
AUDIO:
"My first name is Oliver…Olivier" [Listen]
"I am in contact with the people that will actually arrest you" [Listen]
"You'll get prosecuted and you'll probably get jail time…You don't know what the hell is going to happen to you" [Listen]
"They will want to make you pay" [Listen]
CRIME is a group of American, Canadian and French activists who have taken credit for a July 14 Yes Men-style hoax announcement that Paris would pay $21 billion of restitution to Haiti for money extorted from the former French colony following Haitian independence.
CONTACT: Laurence Fabre – laurencefrancinefabre@gmail.com
Press Release
July 23, 2010
French government tries to “cleanse” the internet of Haiti restitution hoax
On Thursday, July 22, the group that has claimed responsibility for a fake announcement pledging that France would repay Haiti 21 billion dollars for the money France forced Haiti to pay following Haitian independence, the Committee for the Repayment of the Indemnity Money Expropriated from Haiti (CRIME), held its first press conference.
The same day, the French government responded with new threats of legal action, and declared that it would continue its efforts to “cleanse” the internet of the hoax.
The newspaper La Presse reported today that “sources from the Ministry of external affairs of the Hexagon who were questioned yesterday by La Presse aren’t hiding the fact that efforts are still being deployed to cleanse the internet of this deception. Legal proceedings against the group responsible for the hoax are not being ruled out.”
