French homicide solved . . . sort of

French police have been working on a homicide for the past couple years. A woman's skeleton with a large gash in its head was discovered on a Brittany beach in December 2003.

They've finally pinpointed the time of death to somewhere in the range of A.D. 1401 to A.D. 1453. Yup, it happened centuries ago. They're blaming pirates.

What I want to know is this: Why doesn't the French government force the descendants of the pirates to pay reparations to the descendants of the victim? I think it's the only fair thing to do.