[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: February 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
RESTORE DEMOCRACY IN HAITI
______
HON. JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, February 1, 1994
Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw the attention of my
colleagues to remarks by Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II at the
recent conference in Miami convened by Haitian President Aristide.
Representative Kennedy has been a leader in Congress in the effort to
restore democracy in that country and return its elected President. His
recommendations for action by the United States and the international
community deserve our careful attention. The text of his speech
follows.
Remarks by U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II--Miami Conference
on Haiti: January 15, 1994
Good evening. It is a tremendous honor for me to have an
opportunity to participate in this weekend's conference. I
want to thank this surprisingly large and very patient
audience for your interest and your commitment. I share your
hopes that the efforts here will help provide a turning point
in the struggle to restore democracy in Haiti.
President Aristide, ministers of your government, and
members of the Haitian parliament, Ambassador Casimir--it is
a pleasure to be with you. I think it is very important that
Ambassador Larry Pezzullo is here representing President
Clinton and the United States. I always look forward to
talking with Larry about how we can move things ahead.
I'm pleased to join here in Miami with my colleagues who
have led the fight in Congress to keep a focus on Haiti, and
never let up the pressure. Representatives Meek and Brown,
Rangel and Owens--we all owe them a debt of gratitude for
their determination.
I would also like to extend my greetings to Sherly David of
the Haitian Information Center and the poet Jean-Claude
Martineau, both living in Boston, And I'd like to thank
Dorothy Smith-Patterson, President of the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee--also based in Boston--for
leading a delegation to Haiti this past week that included a
member of my staff.
One of the goals of our gathering is to reinvigorate and to
expand the coalition committed to the restoration of
democracy in Haiti. It is essential that we succeed in this
task in the weeks and months ahead. The courageous Haitian
people fighting against brutality and oppression need the
assistance of friends of democracy everywhere in their battle
for justice.
As you all know, today is the anniversary of the birth of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As President Aristide said this
morning, Dr. King is still with us as we try to summon the
serenity and the courage and the steadfastness needed to face
a world with too little peace and too little justice.
When Dr. King said, ``A threat to justice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere,'' he was talking about the
challenge of ending American apartheid.
But what he wrote from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama
30 years ago resonates deeply as we gather here today to
rededicate ourselves to the struggle for justice in Haiti.
The threat to justice in Haiti is indeed a threat to
justice everywhere, but particularly to justice in our own
hemisphere. The brutal exploitation of Haiti by a heartless
elite is an affront to the aspirations of all the Americas
for social and economic justice.
As the United Nations Security Council has expressed in
resolutions, and President Clinton has underscored, the
current injustice in Haiti is also a threat to the security
of other countries in this region and to the sanctity of
democracy in our hemisphere.
I commend those gathered here for their efforts on behalf
of Haiti. But let us not be satisfied until the forces
arrayed against the oppressors become so unified that the
heirs of the Tonton Macoutes know they have no choice but to
step aside and, in Martin Luther King's words, ``let freedom
ring.''
Six months ago, an important step toward freedom was taken
on Governors Island with the signing of an historic agreement
that provided a blueprint to turn the Haitian peoples hopes
and dreams for democracy into reality.
But the pact, signed in the shadow of the State of Liberty,
has not been respected by the leaders of the military coup.
Half a year later, the drug lords of Haiti are still in
power. The rule of law is openly flouted while the champions
of democracy are driven underground in fear of their lives.
The illegal government in Haiti has proven it will take any
steps to stay in power. Not even the sanctity of a church is
respected as we saw when Antoine Izmery was dragged from a
holy sanctuary and shot in the street.
Guy Malary, Haiti's brave justice minister, was murdered in
cold blood for daring to raise a voice against tyranny and
for the rule of law in the land he loved.
This flagrant disregard for justice on our doorstep cannot
be tolerated and we must do what we can to ensure that it is
not repeated.
One of the tragedies of the death of minister Malary was
that the dangers that he faced along with other members of
the Aristide government were foreseen. I was at Governors
Island, taking part in the negotiations in July.
In the middle of night, after days of gruelling
negotiations, and under strong pressure to conclude an
agreement or risk abandonment, President Aristide spoke of
his fears. He said that if his government were installed and
the embargo lifted before General Cedras and Colonel Francois
were removed from office, then the military would sink its
bloody talons even deeper into Haitian society, determined
never to let go. He said that his ministers would be in
danger.
I applaud President Aristide for the initiative this
weekend to build the political support needed for his return.
In the weeks ahead there will be talk of a new Prime Minister
and discussions over the composition of the cabinet.
But we must never forget for a moment who it is that stands
blocking the path to democracy in Haiti. They must go and
their power must be broken before the Aristide government can
exercise its full responsibilities in a climate of security.
The events tearing Haiti apart stand in stark contrast to
the promise of a new day that dawned with the election of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide in December of 1990. Two months after
that historic day, I had the privilege of witnessing his
inauguration in Port-au-Prince.
I have vivid memories of that occasion--the long and joyous
church service, the festive ceremony, and, most of all, the
thousands and thousands of people who jammed the streets. A
jubilant Haitian people was so filled with pride and joy that
every avenue was swept, every wall and building decorated in
honor of the day that their choice, a man of the people,
was taking office to represent their hopes and dreams.
What those faces said to me was that the Haitian people had
won. In the face of grinding poverty and exploitation by
interests foreign and domestic, they had come together in the
fields, workshops, schools, and churches to case a vote for
liberty and democracy.
That ceremony on February 7, 1991 was one of the most
inspiring moments of my political life.
The tragic end of Haiti's seven-month experiment in
democracy is well known, as is the slow response of the Bush
Administration to the crisis in Haiti.
While President Clinton has taken stronger steps to respond
to the military coup, the reality is that our government's
policy has not succeeded in attaining the desired goal--the
restoration of democracy and the reinstatement of President
Aristide.
At the same time, it has grown increasingly untenable to
maintain a refugee policy of throwing into U.S. jails Haitian
men, women and children who are fleeing a military
dictatorship, while greeting as heroes those who flee
Castro's Cuba. We must be willing to denounce both types of
dictatorships and open our hearts and arms to both types of
refugees.
We've listened to the voices of reason. No one wishes to
provoke a massive exodus of desperate people onto dangerous
seas. But neither can we continue to tolerate an immigration
policy that is absolutely morally untenable.
The challenge before us today is to formulate a new
strategy for implementing the Governors Island agreement that
will stand up to any challenge. The time has passed when a
few revolver-waving thugs can turn back a U.S. ship and
thwart the will of the international community.
To begin with, the burden of leadership must not fall on
President Clinton alone. Leaders from the highest level of
government in France, Canada, Venezuela, the U.N. and O.A.S.
must continue to speak forthrightly and consistently on
Haiti.
From the U.S. side, the White House must undertake a very
clear escalation, both in word and deed, to pressure the
military to step down and accept civilian rule.
This can be accomplished in several ways. First, President
Clinton should publicly state he intends to increase economic
pressure on those responsible for the military coup and its
civilian supporters.
This could be followed by:
(1) Freezing the assets and revoking the visas of the
entire 925-member officers corps and of the coup's civilian
supporters.
(2) Freezing all financial transactions between the United
States and Haiti--as we have done with Cuba.
(3) Urging the United Nations to impose a worldwide freeze
on assets and visas of military officers and coup supporters.
(4) Urging the United Nations to impose a total commercial
embargo against Haiti, including financial transactions and
air traffic. In essence, we should have the same type of
comprehensive embargo that President Kennedy considered
against Cuba.
(5) Putting additional pressure on the Dominican Republic
to cut the flow of goods across the border with Haiti. This
would have an important psychological as well as material
impact. It will say to Haiti's poor majority that we are
serious about closing the loopholes used by the military and
elite.
(6) Increasing radio and television broadcasts to Haiti to
break the military's control of information.
(7) Working with other countries to set the groundwork for
the reintroduction of the U.N. and OAS technical mission and
human rights mission as soon as possible.
(8) Making clear that the United States will not rule out
the use of military force to implement the Governors Island
accord.
These actions would send a clear signal to all Haitians
that support for the coup is a dead-end path and will not be
tolerated by the Clinton Administration and the international
community.
The United States owes a tremendous debt to Haiti. Haitian
soldiers came to our shores during the American Revolution to
help realize our hopes for independence. We cannot now turn
our backs in their hour of need.
In President Aristide, the Haitian people have their best
hope ever to realize the promise of the slave revolt that
turned back Napoleon's army and won independence from France.
I have come to know President Aristide as a political
leader and a friend. He has shown tremendous courage and
leadership in the face of unrelenting and vicious attacks on
his integrity.
This man of peace represents the best of Haiti--its
profound spirituality, quiet pride and, most of all,
unshakable conviction in what is right.
The comparisons between President Aristide and other
revolutionary leaders of our century are not overstated. The
spirit of King and Gandhi and Mandela is with us today.
Finally, let me say that I commit myself once again to do
all I can to bring human and civil rights to Haiti, a land
that has suffered so long and so much. It is a land that in
many ways has much in common with the land my family came
from, with its own sad history of economic exploitation and
brutal political repression.
The lesson for all of us here today, as we remember Dr.
King and look to the future with hope, is that suffering is
universal and that our mission is to listen to the voices of
the unheard and fight for what is just. Thank you very much.
____________________