[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
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]

 
                      HAITI'S UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I congratulate former President Carter, 
Senator Nunn, and General Powell on the excellent work which they did 
in avoiding the necessity for a forceful invasion of Haiti. I think 
President Clinton had a good idea to try that route as opposed to a 
forceful invasion. But now there are many questions which are posed as 
to what will happen next.
  I understand that a resolution will be submitted to the Senate in 
support of the President's action, and I think we need to know the 
specifics on quite a number of subjects. For example, what is going to 
happen to General Cedras and what will his availability be, for 
example, to run for the Presidency of Haiti? As I understand the 
arrangements based upon attendance for a short time at a briefing 
today, General Cedras and the others will have amnesty, but they will 
not be compelled to leave Haiti.
  Will they then try to assert their leadership position in a political 
context to run, say, for the Presidency of Haiti when Aristide's term 
expires? According to the information provided, that will be a matter 
for Haiti.
  That certainly does raise some very serious potential problems. We 
know that General Cedras made a commitment to leave power, which he and 
others breached, which created the turmoil, which created the crisis, 
and which created the decision by President Clinton to have a forceful 
invasion of Haiti.
  So I think it is very important to understand exactly what is going 
to happen to General Cedras and to the others who were in the junta 
which caused the problem. It certainly suggests very substantial 
potential for instability if General Cedras and his coconspirators are 
in a position to make trouble in the future.
  The issue of amnesty with the Parliament is another matter. When can 
the Parliament be reconvened? Inquiries are now being made as to the 
size of the Parliament and the location of the parliamentarians, some 
of whom have left Haiti. Their ability to be reconvened for a quorum to 
act on behalf of Haiti is certainly an open question.
  Madam President, I join my colleague, Senator Pressler, who earlier 
today spoke on the Senate floor raising a question about deployment of 
U.S. military personnel in a police action. Make no mistake; when the 
term ``police action'' is used by analogy to the so-called Korean 
police action, that is one way to describe what is really a war by the 
apologists who try to justify military action without a declaration of 
war which the Congress under our Constitution has the sole authority to 
do. But our troops are not trained for a police action. We do have some 
military police who are police in the sense of peacekeepers, making 
arrests and doing regular police actions. But our troops are trained as 
fighters. They are trained for military purposes and not to be 
policemen and policewomen.
  The situation over there is very tense. There are a lot of weapons in 
Haiti. The television visuals from yesterday showed a lot of mob 
action. The commentary was made simultaneously that it may have been 
inspired by the Cedras forces as a show of vocal opposition to the 
representatives of the U.S. Government there.
  There is the potential for violence and the potential for injury. I 
am very interested to know the specifics on when the U.N. force will be 
coming there. It was represented to be a multilateral U.N. effort with 
some 20 nations participating. But the total number of participants 
from the other nations was very limited, estimated somewhere in the 
range of 1,500 to 2,000, and very carefully not designated to be part 
of the invasion force, to bear the brunt and risk of being an invasion 
force to be met by some armed resistance--and not great from what we 
understood about Haiti's military force but certainly posing a risk to 
the invaders, all of which risk was to be borne by United States 
military personnel.
  Now that it is a police action, how soon will the U.N. contributions 
come there to undertake that police action.
  It is certainly a sigh of relief for all America that a forceful 
invasion was not necessary, and we are very grateful to President 
Carter's suggestion and his intervention and the support which was lent 
by Senator Nunn and the support which was lent by General Powell, and 
the President certainly had a good idea in making that one final effort 
before force was used.
  However, there are still many unanswered questions which I think we 
have to address and have to analyze before, at least speaking for 
myself, I am in a position to give support to the deployment of U.S. 
military personnel on any indefinite basis.
  We ought to know the risk factor. We ought to know what other nations 
will be supplying. We ought to know how long they are going to be 
there. We ought to know what the situation is on the ground with 
respect to what General Cedras and the Haitian military or the Haitian 
police are going to do. And as Senator Pressler pointed out, we ought 
to know what the costs are, considering the very extensive deficit and 
the very extensive national debt which our Nation has.
  Madam President, my colleague, Senator Kassebaum, is in the Chamber, 
so I would inquire as to how much of the 10 minutes I have remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 3\1/2\ minutes remaining.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I yield to my colleague the remainder 
of my time, and if that is insufficient, she can ask the Presiding 
Officer for more.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas [Mrs. Kassebaum], is 
recognized.
  Mrs. KASSEBAUM. Madam President, I thank my colleague from 
Pennsylvania [Mr. Specter].
   (The remarks of Mrs. Kassebaum, pertaining to the submission of S. 
Res. 257, are located in today's Record under ``Submission of 
Concurrent and Senate Resolutions.'')

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