Vive la Révolution! Haitians rebel in the Battle at Sainte-Domingue. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This week, the ghosts of colonial misdeeds returned to haunt France.

EU politicians and others wrote an open letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy, demanding that the French government compensate Haiti for a past wrongdoing, explains the Christian Science Monitor.

A petition signed by 100 artists, scholars, and EU politicians that was released Monday called on France to give Haiti $17 billion for earthquake reconstruction. The money would essentially reimburse a fee French King Charles X charged Haiti after a revolt that ended slavery there. King Charles justified the fee as compensation for the loss of slaves and other property.

In 1804, Haiti won a bloody independence from France. But the small Caribbean country was still economically shackled to France until 1947, when the Haitian government finally paid off interest from their lofty independence debt of roughly 90 million gold francs.

Today, that sum is worth about $17 billion — a chunk of change that could surely go to good use helping Haiti rebuild. Haiti remains knee-deep in rubble six months after the devastating earthquake killed thousands and left millions without homes or good health. Yet despite the petition's plea, French foreign ministry spokesperson Christine Fages stressed France's commitment to Haiti, when she spoke with the Christian Science Monitor:

France gives Haiti $25 million a year, has given $30 million in humanitarian aid since the earthquake in January that left some 250,000 dead, has erased a $72 million in debt, and plans a total of $420 million more in aid through next year.

Although President Sarkozy dismissed the petition, he recently stated, "Even if I did not start my mandate at the time of Charles X, I am still responsible in the name of France."

Let's hope so, Monsieur le Président.