Napoleon
carried out 'ethnic cleansing' in Haiti, says French historianWednesday,
November 30, 2005
PARIS, France (AFP): On the French Caribbean island colony of Haiti, then known
as Saint Domingue, a French author claims that Napoleon's troops launched a "vast
operation of ethnic cleansing" in 1802, to stamp out a slave revolt. "One
hundred and forty years before the Holocaust, a dictator, hoping to rule the world,
did not hesitate to crush part of humanity under his boot," Claude Ribbe wrote
in "The Crime of Napoleon", which goes on sale Thursday. Ribbe
has taken a rare shot at one of the country's biggest heroes by casting Napoleon
Bonaparte as a genocidal dictator and inspiration for Adolf Hitler in his incendiary
new book.
As France prepares on Friday to mark the bicentenary of the Battle of Austerlitz
-- considered
the emperor's military masterpiece -- Ribbe's book lists a string of atrocities
allegedly carried out under his rule.
A black academic who sits on a government panel on human rights, Ribbe accuses
the emperor of "exterminating" part of the black population of France's colonial
islands and of introducing a system of racial segregation.
Relying on written accounts from some officers in the Napoleonic armies, Ribbe
writes that French troops used sulphur dioxide to suffocate slaves held in ships'
holds and conducted wide-scale killings.
The troops were under orders to kill all blacks aged over 12, he writes.
"It
is no surprise that he (Napoleon) served as a model for Mussolini, who wrote a
play in his glory, or to Hitler, who saluted him with a 'Heil Napoleon' at the
Invalides (in Paris) on June 28, 1940," writes the historian.
"All
the facts contained (in the book) are known to historians, but are willfully overlooked,"
Ribbe charges in his introduction.
Joined by a number of associations from France's overseas territories, Ribbe has
been campaigning to bring such episodes to public attention, as France prepares
to pay tribute to its legendary emperor.
The groups have called for a march on Saturday in protest at the emperor's "glorification"
and the "historical revisionism" surrounding his rule.
"We
cannot allow, in a supposedly law-abiding country, for history. to b Related
Headlines Chirac
shuns 'guilty' Napoleon
By
Henry Samuel in Paris, Telegraph Group Limited The
bicentenary of the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon's greatest victory, is to be
shunned by France's two leading politicians. Their
absence comes amid an escalating row over whether to fete the emperor as a great
leader or denounce him as a dictator. Neither
President Jacques Chirac nor his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin - an ardent
admirer of Napoleon - will take part in the official ceremonies to mark the French
army's defeat of Austrian and Russian forces on Dec 2, 1805. Historians
classify the battle of Austerlitz, now a town called Slavkov in the Czech Republic,
as a military masterpiece, in which the 71,000 men of Napoleon's Grande Armée
routed their 91,000 adversaries in just six hours, killing 19,000. The victory
ended a coalition between Austria and Russia. Low-key
celebrations will take place on Friday in the Place Vendôme in central Paris
and at the site of the battle, in the presence of the defence minister, Michèle
Alliot-Marie. However
Mr Chirac will be in Mali for a Franco-African summit, while Mr de Villepin "never
planned to add the ceremony to his agenda," according to a spokesman. The
debate over Napoleon's legacy will intensify tomorrow with the publication of
a book by a French historian that claims Napoleon provided the model for Hitler's
Final Solution. The
Crime of Napoleon, by Claude Ribbe, charges the emperor with genocide and gassing
rebellious black slaves to halt an uprising in Haiti. Associations
from France's overseas departments have pointed out that he reintroduced slavery
in 1802. was done under the Soviet Union," they said in a joint statement.
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