29116: Nat comments: RE: 29099: Clerie (Reply): Re: 29093: Stephen (reply) RE: 29077: (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Rob 6969 <liberalproject@hotmail.com>


No! France owes us nothing. We agreed to pay it and we did pay it, no matter
how long it took. We bought our independence twice: in blood and in cash.

What about the Vienna Convention? France signed it (only after 1945) however 
requested payment to be made until some claim not 1947 but 1972.
Boyer agreed to pay that amount after Haiti went through 15 years of war and 
blood.
Was France not threatening the use of force??

The Vienna Concention is clear in two of its articles

Article 52 Coercion of a State by the threat or use of force

A treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of 
force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the 
Charter of the United Nations.


And a bit later

Article 71 Consequences of the invalidity of a treaty which conflicts with a 
peremptory norm of general international law.

1. In the case of a treaty which is void under article 53 the parties shall:
(a)
eliminate as far as possible the consequences of any act performed in reliance 
on any provision which conflicts with the peremptory norm of general 
international law; and