French President Sarkozy Announces Haiti Aid Plan

Watch the French President Sarkozy Announces Haiti Aid Plan video, PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has pledged to give earthquake-ravaged Haiti 450m in reconstruction aid. The amount includes a cancellation of Haiti's debt to France of 77m, Sarkozy said during his brief visit to the Caribbean nation on Wednesday. Sarkozy arrived in Haiti earlier on Wednesday to support international relief efforts after last month's 7.0 magnitude earthquake. His visit is the first by a French president to the former French slave colony, which fought for and won its independence in 1804, becoming the first independent black republic. Such a people does not die, Sarkozy said during an address to French rescue workers in the capital Port-au-Prince. French officials hoped that the visit will summon a new era between France and its former colony, Sarkozy and his people are very much cognisant of the fact that Haitians hold a lot of suspicion and resentment over its former brutal years of slavery as a colony and over feelings that France has continued to meddle in politics on this island in more recent years. Sarkozy surveyed the devastated Haitian capital and other affected areas by helicopter, and was also to visit a French-run field hospital. He was also due to meet Haiti's leaders to offer France's financial support for a plan for post-quake recovery and reconstruction that is being put together by foreign donors with the Haitian government. Economists from the Inter-American Development Bank have b...b