[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10643-H10644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN HAITI?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, the Washington Post took valuable editorial 
space last week to alert anyone who might be paying attention to what 
is going on in Haiti to the fact that the Presidential election process 
seems to be falling off track. In fact, the United Nations said last 
week that they need 110 days to do the job correctly, putting those 
elections--not the inauguration of a new Haitian President--into the 
first week of February. 

[[Page H 10644]]

  Unfortunately, this is just one of a host of signs that things may be 
beginning to unravel in that small Caribbean nation. October 15 marked 
1 year since more than 20,000 American troops returned President 
Aristide to his demiisland nation.
  Even as Vice President Gore traveled to Haiti to celebrate the first 
anniversary of that happy event, wire services began to report the 
Haitian Prime Minister, Smarce Michel, unable to get the support of the 
President for his vital economic reform proposals, had tendered his 
resignation.
  While the American media was quick to suggest on Monday that he 
stepped down because of pressure from the incoming Parliament, the fact 
is that Prime Minister Michel has been fighting for many weeks against 
the rear guard action of left-leaning, antireform elements, and 
apparently anti-American activists in the Aristide government.
  Why is this so important? Because the inability of the Aristide 
government to summon the collective will to make the economic reforms 
required to access $1.2 billion international aid package means that 
Haitians could face their worst economic crisis to date.
  For Americans, this ultimately could mean another costly refugee 
interdiction operation in the windward passage. While the Aristide 
government has been talking reform with the international community, 
there are troubling reports that, as happened in 1991, it may be 
actually working behind the scenes to gain control of key industries 
like flour, cement, sugar, and rice rather than privatizing as 
promised.
  Already what were very promising bidding cycles for the cement and 
flour plants have been suspended indefinitely--not for lack of bids.

  An unnamed international official quoted in the New York Times last 
week summed up well the frustration of working with a government that 
appears to be working dual agendas: ``The President is not playing 
straight with us and that means we are on a collision course * * * it 
is unacceptable for him to give aid and comfort to the international 
community behind closed doors and then say something completely 
different to his own people.'' With the overwhelmingly Lavalas National 
Assembly seated last weekend with the blessing of the Clinton 
administration--but not of the Haitian political parties--President 
Aristide and his supporters now have a Parliament to rubberstamp the 
creation of a new cabinet and what is apparently their real agenda--the 
consolidation of power for the left and leftist authoritarian rule.
  It should come as no surprise then that, after publicly stating his 
intention to depart, Aristide has said he will let his new Lavalas 
Parliament guide him with regard to his tenure in office. We may be 
further from the Presidential elections in Haiti than any of us dared 
to think--even though the 1987 Haitian Constitution says that President 
Aristide must go come February.
  The U.S. House of Representatives has even passed the Goss amendment 
to encourage the Haitians to stick to that Constitution and elect a new 
president to lead them forward.
  With almost $3 billion American tax dollars on the line, rest assured 
that Americans across the country, myself included, are going to be 
looking to Port-au-Prince come February expecting a new Haitian 
President to take office and to help his people take the fate of their 
country back into Haitian keeping.
  If that isn't going to happen, then the Clinton administration owes 
this Congress and the taxpayers of this country an explanation about 
what is happening and what is not happening, as they have promised.
  These things matter for lots of reasons. They matter because we are 
the champions of democracy, and they matter because we have a lot of 
taxpayers' dollars invested, and when we do that we have an 
accountability to the world and to our taxpayers, and that 
accountability time has come.

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