[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 20, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        HOW DO WE BRING OPERATION RESTORE DEMOCRACY TO A CLOSE?

  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, on July 28, 1915, the United States invaded 
and occupied Haiti in response to the brutal slaying and dismemberment 
of the Haitian President Vilbrun Guillaume by an angry mob of Haitians. 
This date marked the beginning of the longest occupation in American 
history. It lasted 19 years. In the first 5 years, United States 
soldiers killed more than 2,200 Haitians in their effort to pacify the 
cities and countryside. The United States rewrote the constitution, 
reconstituted the military, collected taxes, censored the press, and 
arbitrated disputes. We were firmly entangled in Haiti. On September 
19, 1994, the United States occupied Haiti--again.
  Ultimately, 15,000 to 20,000 American soldiers will be on the ground 
there. The Pentagon is operating on the assumption that the occupation 
force will stay until the end of President Aristide's term in December 
1995. United States forces are working to reconstitute the Haitian 
military, to disarm the public, and maintain public security. In short, 
we are once again firmly entangled in Haiti.
  Yesterday, I joined my colleagues in hailing the Sunday night, skin 
of our teeth agreement that helped keep American soldiers out of 
outright military conflict in Haiti. However, we are not out of the 
woods yet. The administration, did not really plan for the current 
military operation. As one administration official said: ``We had a 
plan for permissive entry and a plan for hostile entry, what we got is 
between the two and we had no plan for it.'' For the soldiers who, 
unlike that official, aren't sitting in the relative safety of 
Washington, DC, the mission remains dangerously ill-defined. As one 
young Florida soldier noted: ``We don't know what our job is, our 
mission is, and for how long it's supposed to last. We've just been 
told not to shoot anybody.'' In addition to these uncertainties, we 
must take into account the pervasive elements of Haitian society, as 
bred by 200 years of domestic unrest: fear, violence, paranoia. We have 
to consider the military ranks who oppose the return of Aristide; the 
sector chiefs who have built their own little kingdoms--militia and 
all--in the Haitian countryside; the 20,000 plus armed Attaches who are 
the successors to the Macoutes of Duvalier's day; the Haitians who feel 
they must avenge the death of friends and relations; those like Biamby 
who are nationalistic in the extreme and carry a visceral dislike of 
the United States. This last point is very important. Earlier this 
summer Haitians across their country paused to note the 79th 
anniversary of the first United States occupation of Haiti. One Haitian 
historian summed up the feeling this way: ``The date is important 
because it was a period of humiliation, and one does not live easily 
with such humiliation. We suffered an offense to our national pride.'' 
American soldiers have already heard this message from Haitians like 
the university student who screamed ``You Americans better not be 
trying to put your flag on Haitian soil'' to the arriving forces.
  While the United States managed to avert all out warfare, American 
soldiers have been committed to a longterm stay in Haiti. Given this 
reality, one might expect a little enthusiasm from the man that all of 
these exercises are meant to restore--Jean Bertrande-Aristide. Over the 
last 6 months, I have specifically asked administration officials--both 
verbally and in writing--if Aristide made a firm commitment to return 
to Haiti if the United States smooths the way. The answer was 
invariably yes. Today, President Aristide finally broke his silence in 
the aftermath of the agreement reached with Cedras and company on 
Sunday night. In his statement he pointedly ignored the agreement and 
the occupation already underway, choosing instead to talk only about 
returning to the failed Governor's Island Accord process. Aristide does 
not appear to support our course of action--he may never go back. 
Meanwhile, American soldiers are on the ground in Haiti securing his 
country for him. Certainly, there is nothing simple about the current 
situation in Haiti. One can only wonder, given all of these potential 
pitfalls, how the White House intends to bring Operation Restore 
Democracy to a close. Let us hope it does not take 19 years and a 
Haitian uprising to bring our soldiers home.

                              {time}  1810
    REPORT ON RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4448, 
              ESTABLISHING LOWELL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

  Mr. MOAKLEY, from the Committee on Rules, submitted a privileged 
report (Rept. No. 103-730) on the resolution (H. Res. 532) providing 
for consideration of the bill (H.R. 4448) to amend the act establishing 
Lowell National Historical Park, and for other purposes, which was 
referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

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