Faux French Foreign Ministry Explains Prank

CRIME takes full responsibility for the July 14 reparations announcement. It was indeed a complete hoax. But we did it to draw public attention to a far bigger hoax: How little France, as well as the U.S. and Canada, have offered Haiti in earthquake relief, relative to what Haitians are owed in reparations.

Updated | 3:53 p.m. The Lede has received a statement from Laurence Fabre, who identified herself as a spokeswoman for the group behind an elaborate hoax, in which someone impersonating a French government official announced this week that France would reimburse Haiti money it was forced to pay in exchange for its independence in the 19th century.

The hoax announcement was made on a Web site, diplomatiegov.fr, that was designed to look almost identical to that of the French foreign ministry. Since Ms. Fabre said that her group is no longer able to post to that Web site — possibly because of "an intervention by the French government," which has not taken kindly to the stunt — the group has sent the following statement to The Lede, following our coverage of the prank on Thursday night and Friday morning:

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).

We, a group of activists from France, Canada and the United States, fess up to issuing false statements on behalf of the French foreign ministry.

But is a spoof website such a grave crime, compared to is what the French government has 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.

-Actively helping to overthrow Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on Feb. 29, 2004, in large measure because he had the temerity to demand that France reimburse Haiti the "independence debt" with interest amounting to about $21 billion. This was the first time a former slave colony officially requested reparations from a former colonial and slave-owning nation.

-Promising to Haiti through pledged contributions to U.N. agencies, NGOS and the Red Cross some $180 million, but six months later, not one centime has been delivered to Haiti, according to the U.N.'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.

CRIME takes full responsibility for the July 14 reparations announcement. It was indeed a complete hoax. But we did it to draw public attention to a far bigger hoax: How little France, as well as the U.S. and Canada, have offered Haiti in earthquake relief, relative to what Haitians are owed in reparations.

It was never our intention to create false hopes, though we have perhaps done so in attributing to the French government such a courageous, just an admirable action. However, we feel the French government must also be held accountable for its disappointing failure to do the right thing.

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

–CRIME

In a telephone interview, Ms. Fabre said that the group plans to post this statement soon on a new Web site, diplomatiegov.info, which should go live later on Friday.

Ms. Fabre declined to reveal any more information about the identities of the group's members. But the French newspaper L'Express reported on Friday that the actor who played the part of the French official in the video appeared to have a French-Canadian accent.

In a subsequent email message, Ms. Fabre said, "It is most unfortunate" that the French foreign ministry "has been so ungrateful, and frankly, uncooperative, with our bold initiative to improve the French government's reputation in Haiti."

In response to speculation that the Yes Men, a group that carries out similarly elaborate pranks, might have been involved in this ruse, The Lede received this statement from Mike Bonanno, a member of that group by e-mail on Friday:

In the strongest terms we deplore this stunt and are exploring all of our legal options to locate and punish the perpetrators for theft of creative and intellectual copyright, which was clearly Yes Men derived, yet no due attribution has been forthcoming. These amateurs will be hearing from our lawyers soon.

All the same, I was surprised to learn that France spent many years collecting financial damages as part of Haiti's independence agreement. Money lost from interruption of the slave trade? Wow… free trade in action.