[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 58 (Thursday, May 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                HAITI'S TORTURED AND DIFFICULT PROBLEMS

  (Mr. MAZZOLI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MAZZOLI. Mr. Speaker, I wish to address briefly the tortured and 
difficult problem of Haiti. This week the administration announced one 
Haitian policy change with which I heartily agree and sent up one trial 
balloon about which I am very apprehensive.
  Mr. Speaker, the policy change I agree with entirely is that no 
longer will Haitians be interdicted in the Windward Passage and sent 
back to Haiti without having their claims examined for possibly being 
refugees fleeing persecution. This is entirely salutary. It is entirely 
in keeping with our national policy about refugee status.
  Mr. Speaker, the trial balloon that I hope is not going to go very 
far and about which I have great apprehension deals with the 
possibility of invading Haiti, sending military troops in there either 
to train the Haitian police or to literally invade and occupy the 
island. America tried that early in the second decade of the 1900's, we 
were there in Haiti until the early 1930's and we solved nothing and 
left many residual problems.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope we can find some combination of international 
diplomacy, creativity of one sort or another, but not military 
intervention to solve Haiti's tortured and difficult problems.

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