[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 59 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4010-H4011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     MORE WISHFUL THINKING IN HAITI

  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, it has been 193 days since America's finest 
combat forces occupied Haiti, a friendly neighboring country. Tomorrow, 
the occupation will formally end as President Clinton travels to Port-
au-Prince to declare the mission a victory and to pass the reins to the 
United Nations. Our prayers for Godspeed and a safe return, of course, 
go with him, our Commander in Chief and our President, but we wish it 
was truly a victory, a mission accomplished, but it is not that easy. 
We wish democracy, security, and stability could actually be a reality 
in Haiti, however it clearly takes more 
[[Page H4011]] than wishful thinking to fix 200 years of civil strife 
and gut-wrenching poverty, some of it I am sorry to say caused by the 
Clinton administration's costly and ill-advised embargo.
  It is also obvious that the commitment of 20,000 American troops and 
more than 1.5 billion American tax dollars, a figure that will pass the 
$2 billion mark before this mission ends, have not fixed Haiti's 
problems at all. Look at a sampling of recent headlines: ``Missionary 
Couple From U.S. Are Shot,'' ``Haitian Slum Residents Sharpening Their 
Machetes After Deadly Robbery,'' ``Outspoken Aristide Critic Gunned 
Down in Port-au-Prince,'' ``Violence in Haiti Stops Voter 
Registration'' and the one from today that sums it all up: ``To 
Clinton, Mission Accomplished; To Haitians, Hopes Dashed.''
  While it is easy enough for the United Nations and the Clinton 
administration to declare Haiti ``safe and secure,'' it does not make 
it a reality for people who live there. A marked increase in 
politically motivated violence has come hand-in-hand with a tidal wave 
of crime and lawlessness that is threatening to overrun the country. 
Many of the Haitian and American businesses that managed to stay open, 
despite the punishing United States-led embargo, are being driven to 
the brink of closure again by nightly raids on storehouses, regular 
truck ambushes, and looting at distribution centers. Investors are not 
being welcomed by the Aristide government or encouraged to return by 
the deteriorating security situation. In fact, fewer than 10,000 jobs 
have returned
 since the embargo ended. Prices are high. Unemployment is at more than 
75 percent. People once content to wait for the spoils of Aristide's 
return are growing increasingly frustrated and prone to crime and 
violence. This is hardly conducive to establishing a secure and stable 
environment. Although the Clinton administration has placed tremendous 
faith in the ability of the interim police force, a force cobbled 
together from former Fadh members and Guantanamo refugees to provide 
for law and order as the transition to the United Nations mission is 
made tomorrow, the truth is that those individuals are not up to the 
job. They do not command the respect of the Haitian people. Even 
President Aristide has recently referred to the media as cowardly. They 
are underresourced.
  In Port-au-Prince, for example, 182 of the police share 3 weapons and 
I do not know if those weapons work. They are afraid to patrol at 
night, and they are easily intimidated by the vigilante groups that 
have become a common phenomenon in Haiti. Let me add that when 
reportedly at the encouragement of President Aristide, armed mobs went 
out into Haitian cities meting out justice with machetes, rocks, and 
torches, it has to be clear, even the Clinton White House that 
something is seriously wrong in Haiti. It is not secure and stable.
  Just as disturbing as the lack of security is the lack of progress on 
elections. There are signs that that process may be seriously flawed 
and subject to lengthy delays because of increased political violence, 
lack of public interest and the logistical nightmare of starting from 
ground zero. Until the elections take place Haiti, has no functioning 
legislative branch. There is no Congress there. In addition, the 
judicial branch, weak as it is, has not come back online in Haiti. In 
other words President Aristide rules without the checks or balances of 
either the parliament or the judiciary.
  Question: How can you have a democracy without a parliament or a 
judicial branch? Answer: ``You can't. It's not a democracy.''
  I suspect that President Clinton and his advisors will breathe a 
heavy sign of relief to no longer be in charge of what happens in that 
small Caribbean nation in the weeks ahead. But the White House and 
Congress still have a job to do because the policies pursued in Haiti 
by this Clinton administration have made Haitian Affairs our business. 
American tax dollars still flow into Haiti at an alarming rate. More 
importantly, 2,400 of our men and women in uniform will be part of the 
United Nations mission in Haiti until at least February 1996, although 
indications are that that deadline may slip even further by the time 
the new President is supposed to be installed.
  Mr. Speaker, all is not well in Haiti, and all the wishful thinking 
in the world, all the White House spin doctors, are not going to change 
that. The reality is we have spent an awful lot for a very little, and 
it is appropriate for full accountability for the events to date. We 
hope to get that from the White House, and it is also appropriate to 
have realistic planning to deal with the mess that remains. It is a 
mess, and we owe them some assistance and recovery.


                          ____________________