[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
              NIGHTMARE OF THE HAITIAN PEOPLE ALMOST OVER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Owens] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the long nightmare of the Haitian people is 
almost over. We have taken some very definitive steps. The military 
criminals who hijacked a nation of 7 million people and held them 
hostage for 3 years will now have to step down. There is no question 
about an enforcement of an agreement when American forces are there to 
enforce the agreement.
  But this is very much a repeat of what happened this time almost a 
year ago. Almost a year ago we were in the process of implementing the 
Governors Island agreement which contained many of the same features as 
the agreement reached by President Carter and his negotiating team. We 
must understand that agreement with General Cedras as a signatory and 
the United Nations as a signatory and the United States as a signatory, 
that agreement was violated, rejected by General Cedras, the same 
General Cedras that we are negotiating with now.
  The President must be congratulated for establishing a different set 
of circumstances this time. The President must be congratulated for his 
courage and his perseverance. The position that he has taken is not a 
popular one. I congratulate the President and I thank the President. I 
think that the President was in much the same position as Abraham 
Lincoln when he decided to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Public 
opinion at that time certainly was against the freeing of the slaves. 
Public opinion and the Congress and the members of Lincoln's Cabinet 
all voted against the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. But 
Abraham Lincoln went ahead and he signed the Emancipation Proclamation 
to free the slaves.

                              {time}  1930

  Had he not done that, America would have gone on with the burden of 
slavery around its neck for a long, long time.
  What President Clinton has done is comparable as we go into the new 
world order. As we go into the new world order it is very important 
that we establish certain principles of democracy and the willingness 
of the nations of the world to maintain those democracies.
  Haiti is in our interest because we have always declared it so. Since 
the Monroe Doctrine, we have declared that everything that happens in 
this hemisphere is very much in the interest of America. But Haiti is a 
special case. The Haitian generals were trained in this country, the 
Haitian army was equipped by this country, the Haitian generals, some 
of them were on the payroll of the CIA until a little more than a year 
ago. So we have been very much involved in the affairs of Haiti for a 
long, long time. it is time now for us to insinuate the positive. What 
has happened now is very positive.
  Let us go on, let us return the Haitian people to a state of normalcy 
by moving swiftly to return President Aristide to office Aristide 
already has a cabinet. He appointed that cabinet at the time of the 
Governors Island Agreement. They are there. Aristide already has a 
government in place. Let us move on so that government can begin to 
operate.
  There is no need for American forces to remain in Haiti for a long 
time. Haiti is no Somalia. Haiti has a government. Two-thirds of the 
people voted for the President of Haiti, two-thirds of the people 
elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide. If two-thirds elected him, then they 
are going to welcome him back and fall in line and very much support 
the reestablishment of a Government of Haiti.
  Let us go forward, and let us understand the generals who are 
negotiating now are negotiating because they were confronted with 
overwhelming force. They are not the angels that some people are 
describing them as. They do not have a sense of honor that has been 
described by others. The generals are responding to the inevitable. 
They understood that the President meant business, that there would be 
an enforcement of the Governors Island Agreement.
  We must move on and understand that this is the setting, the tone for 
the new world order. Nations who are great superpowers shall be 
measured by how they deal with the least nations among us, not by how 
we pursue our obvious national interests.
  It is easy to go to war in the Persian Gulf to keep the prices of oil 
low. It is more difficult to explain the importance of going to war or 
threatening war in this hemisphere in order to guarantee democracy and 
in order to eliminate the refugee problem. Nobody talks about the 
refugees. There are 14,000 still at Guantanamo. The refugee problem, 
more importantly, was costing us $2 million a day at Guantanamo, and 
the situation was going to go on indefinitely. The cost of this 
invasion or the cost of any additional aid to Haiti will be very small 
compared to the indefinite situation of expenditures to take care of 
refugees who no longer will have to leave their nation because they 
will have established a democratic government that will not persecute 
their own people.
  I think it is very important that we support, as we have in the 
resolution that was just passed, we support the efforts of our troops, 
we support the effort of the President, and we most of all establish a 
whole new pattern of conduct for the new world order.

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