Just as soon as Haiti became inde­pen­dent the nation was bur­dened with debt. As we linked to yes­ter­day, the slaves in Haiti who gained inde­pen­dence then had to pay repa­ra­tions to their for­mer slave hold­ers. That action began a his­tory of indebt­ed­ness for the coun­try, and is a big rea­son why Haiti has been unable to achieve a sta­ble economy.

Calls for all wealthy nations to for­give Haiti’s debts grew stronger yes­ter­day as the “Paris Club” of four indus­tri­al­ized nations issued a state­ment ask­ing all coun­tries to for­give Haiti’s debts. From the New York Times, Alan Cow­ell reports on the Paris Club’s appeal.

Broad­en­ing the relief effort, the Paris Club of inter­na­tional cred­i­tors issued an appeal Tues­day for nations owed money by Haiti to can­cel the debts to help recon­struc­tion after the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake a week ago.

A state­ment from the infor­mal group­ing, which meets each month in Paris and is com­posed of major indus­tri­al­ized coun­tries, came as inter­na­tional agen­cies pressed for the pro­vi­sion of greater secu­rity to pro­tect the dis­tri­b­u­tion of aid in Haiti and the sup­ply route lead­ing from the neigh­bor­ing Domini­can Republic.

The Paris Club said that last July its mem­bers can­celed all their claims on Haiti, at that time total­ing $214 million.

“Con­sid­er­ing the financ­ing needs that Haiti will face in recon­struct­ing the coun­try, Paris Club cred­i­tors call upon other bilat­eral cred­i­tors also to urgently pro­vide full debt can­cel­la­tion to Haiti,” the state­ment said.

The response from cred­i­tors was not clear. The Paris Club said that Haiti’s pub­lic exter­nal debt, before fac­tor­ing in relief offered to very poor coun­tries, totaled $1.885 bil­lion at the end of Sep­tem­ber 2008. The appeal came as relief efforts in Haiti were still stymied by bot­tle­necks and secu­rity fears.

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