[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 63 (Thursday, May 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON THE HAITIAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I want to address the subject of Haiti and our 
foreign policy. Many Americans are very puzzled about what is going on.
  What exactly is our administration trying to achieve in Haiti? If 
they are trying to ensure that Haitians take to boats in record 
numbers, if they are trying to ensure that whatever progress Haiti has 
made toward democracy in the 1990 election is nullified, if they are 
trying to ignore President Aristide, if they are trying to create more 
misery in the economy and on the oppressed and the poor in that 
country, then they are doing exactly the right things, because that is 
exactly what is going on as a result of the administration's foreign 
policy.
  On May 8 the President announced a new policy: Tougher sanctions and 
better visa processing for those who want to leave the areas that are 
impacted by tougher sanctions and that, of course, is across Haiti, and 
those visa processing centers are going to be either offshore or in 
some other country, some unspecified, some mythical country that does 
not exist. It turns out since May 8 the administration has in fact 
leased two cruise ships to do some type of processing for Haitian 
refugees who are now fleeing the country's misery in record numbers. 
One of these ships we are paying $29,000 a day for rent. Another we are 
paying $34,000 a day of taxpayer's dollars. I do not know where these 
ships are cruising. I do not know whether it is just offshore in the 
Windward Passage or nearby Caribbean waters, or they are planning to 
anchor them somewhere. But in addition to those rental costs for them 
per day, we now have the economy package, and crew, fuel, potable 
water, and a whole bunch of other extras that have to be included. So 
this is getting to be a very expensive processing center.

  On top of that the State Department conceded Monday that there has 
been a marked increase in refugees since the announcement the President 
made on May 8. In fact, the Coast Guard reported last weekend was the 
highest weekend repatriation total since 1992.
  So far in May we have repatriated 897 Haitian refugees; 877 of those 
have been intercepted since last Friday.
  What that means is the President announced one policy on May 8 that 
encouraged Haitian refugees to leave Haiti, and the word did not get 
down to the executive branches. The Coast Guard is returning those 
people. So we have this vast flow of people who are trying to get out 
of economic harm's way in a country, being returned right back to where 
they started from after a perilous journey in the water. Not a good 
policy.
  The President has said that he wanted to toughen up the sanctions, 
create a tougher embargo. What we are doing here is we are grinding 
further into poverty the poorest, the most needy people in the most 
needy nation in our hemisphere.
  Just this week, AGAPE and MFI humanitarian aid flights were grounded 
because of an executive order. On Wednesday a flight loaded with 5,000 
pounds of food and other supplies on two flights that were supposed to 
go out of West Palm Beach have now been grounded. This group, 
incidentally, of these folks have been delivering humanitarian aid to 
Haiti for more than 14 years. So what we have done is stepped up a 
damaging embargo, and what it is going to do is it is going to enrich 
the military further and make the lives of the poor even worse.
  A friend of mine, an associate who just came back from Haiti 
explained to me when I asked him for a characterization that is a 
public health disaster. What is going on in Haiti right now is as a 
result of our policies, and we are forcing the Haitians into the sea. 
They have eaten their seed corn, they have cut down their fruit trees 
for fuel, they have trashed their environment and they have polluted 
their waters. There is not much left. And then the coup de grace, we 
say we are going to have an invasion of Haiti. What better reasons to 
leave and seek a life abroad?
  That is what the President's policies are doing for us in Haiti. And 
it is what they are doing to Haitians, and that is even worse.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that it is fair to say that the President's 
policies have polarized the situation, and I hope not beyond repair. 
The right wing has been forced to rally. We have seen this new 
President who is now a President Premier, and now the President Premier 
with a new Cabinet appointed by him of the right wing, a Emile Jonason, 
and every time the President announces a new policy around the former 
Premier, Malval, they trump that policy with some other right-wing 
activity. So we now have a polarized situation, and we are further away 
from a democratic solution than we started out with.
  Just yesterday in Florida, Haitians in this country are exhibiting 
their disgust with this policy. We had 500 or so demonstrating, 
clogging I-95 down in south Florida yesterday, holding up signs saying, 
``No Aristide--no peace.'' In other words, we cannot ignore President 
Aristide is their President.
  There is more and more to this. There is a solution to all of this. 
It is in a place called Eoile de la Gonave off Haiti, and that is where 
we should take the Haitian refugees and set up a safe haven.
  We will be talking about this more.

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