[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 112 (Friday, July 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H8587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ADMINISTRATION SHOULD ADVISE CONGRESS REGARDING CURRENT HAITI SITUATION

  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, I will not use the 5 minutes. Mr. Speaker, I 
took the well last evening because we had received a surprise from 
Haiti. We were getting ground reports that the 82d Airborne had arrived 
in that country, at least in company strength, and was very visible on 
Humvee vehicles with machine guns and battle gear going around the 
capital city and elsewhere in the country.
  The people were puzzled about what was going on, so we asked for an 
explanation from the administration. Today is another day and today is 
another day we have had more silence from the administration on exactly 
what are our increased American troops doing in Haiti and what, in 
fact, is going on in Haiti.
  Many people who do not follow what goes on in that friendly 
neighboring country just to the south of Florida, which is my district, 
are not aware that they have just had the equivalent of their O.J. 
Simpson trial there over the death of a respected man named Guy Mallory 
who was assassinated a few years ago, among many assassinations that 
have regrettably taken place in that country. That trial came out that 
they acquitted two suspects that they felt they had pretty good 
evidence. And now the President of the country has come along and said 
there was something, quote, suspicious about the verdict.
  The judicial system does not work very well in Haiti. It is a country 
where passions tend to run very quickly and very intensely. We have now 
got people in the streets saying that this jury contained people who 
were enemies of the people. ``Enemies of the people'' in Haiti is code 
word and it usually precurses trouble.
  We have got now a situation where we have got obviously a bad 
situation in the country and a lot of agitation and feeling going on. 
And apparently we have now sent the 82d Airborne, at least part of it. 
We do not know exactly what they are doing. We do not send the 82d 
Airborne just anywhere. They are a crack American outfit. We reserve 
them for our most difficult problems and hot spots. I would suggest 
that Bujumbura, Burundi, today is a place where the human rights 
violations and the black-on-black genocide is so atrocious that if 
there were a need to put our troops some place to make peace and 
stability and protect human rights, it might rise to a larger order of 
things to be looking at Bujumbura than Haiti.

  But some have suggested that the reason that we have sent the 82d to 
Haiti is to perhaps try to keep the lid on things there because we know 
that the Clinton administration has claimed Haiti as a foreign policy 
success story, and I know that they are anxious to try and keep proving 
that right up to the election, at least in this country.
  I think that the time has come for the Clinton administration to try 
and reduce the candor gap with the American people on so many issues. 
But when it comes to foreign policy and when it comes to committing our 
troops who are actually in harm's way in a situation as explosive as 
the one in Port-au-Prince and Haiti today, it seems that they ought to 
be discussing it with Members of Congress who have legitimate oversight 
and legitimate concerns about how our taxpayers' dollars are spent, and 
legitimate concerns about how our foreign policy is executed and when 
it is executed.
  So I am still hopeful that the administration will take advantage of 
this and the White House will share with the American people and the 
news networks what exactly is going on in Haiti and why we have more 
soldiers there.

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