[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 42 (Thursday, April 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ANOTHER LOST OPPORTUNITY 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, a wise man once said: Four things come not 
back: The spoken word, the sped arrow, time passed, and the neglected 
opportunity.
  As I reviewed the observer reports from this weekend's elections in 
Haiti, this aphorism came to mind. We all congratulate the Haitians who 
worked so hard on election day, and those who came out to vote, despite 
the many factors that might have kept them away from the polls.
  But when 20,000 American troops invaded Haiti, as opposed as some of 
us here were to this action, we all hoped somehow the end result would 
bear fruit for our troubled neighbors in Hispaniola. Sadly, that 
opportunity has not been fully realized.
  This weekend's elections, the last in a cycle to create the 
institutions set forth in the 1987 Haitian Constitution, offer 
testimony to the disappointing reality in that country. Haitians, 
expressing disillusionment with democracy and certainty that the 
results were already determined, barely participated in their 
elections. Observers have placed turnout in the range of a dismal 5 
percent.
  Why? After five rounds of voting in the past 3 years, many of the 
Haitian observers spoke with those who echoed sentiments like the 
Haitian who said: My children cannot eat this vote. They cannot eat 
democracy. They need food.
  Frustrated Haitians told observers I spoke with that ``At least when 
Duvalier was here, things worked. Today nothing happens. Today the 
machinery sits and rusts, and the people get nothing. The money comes 
to Haiti but we do not know where it goes.''
  People will recall Duvalier was a brutal dictator. If it is worse 
than that now, things are not well in Haiti. Still others told 
observers that ``Everyone here knows already the winner of these 
elections. These are simply reflections of the situation.''
  Three years after the triumphant return of President Aristide, 
progress on stability and jobs and good governance is as elusive as 
ever in Haiti. In fact, those of us who have traveled to Haiti over the 
years are beginning to see disturbing trends. Not only are things not 
getting better, in many respects they seem to actually be getting 
worse, despite the $3 billion of taxpayers' investment.
  The disappointment goes well beyond the lack of economic growth and 
new investment. Anxiety about business and personal security remains a 
part of everyday Haitian life. Since the beginning of this year there 
has been a series of assassinations, brutal assassinations, aimed at 
the Haitian national police. As has been the case in the past 3 years, 
still more political figures have either gone into hiding or have just 
simply left the country, fearing for their lives because of the rising 
tide of harassment and violence they encounter. The large population 
center of Cite Soleil is the site of regular random shooting sprees by 
armed gangs, and cities like Cap Haitien are subject to regular 
eruptions from populist organizations.
  Beyond this, if one looks at the health of democracy in general, 
certainly the disenfranchisement of the opposition parties from the 
electoral process, and likely consolidation of one sector's hold on 
Haitian institutions, from the local through the national level, adds 
to the sense that things are not going well in Haiti, and in fact, it 
is not a true democracy.
  Maybe that is why the Pentagon announced yesterday that 200 more 
paratroopers from the 82d Airborne are being sent from Fort Bragg to 
Haiti. Frankly, today the Haitian peoples are not the only ones with 
questions about what is happening in the small Caribbean nations. These 
realities have some Americans such as myself wondering when to expect 
the next refugee flow, the next political killing, the next setback in 
the process of economic reform.
  What this means is that those of us who have oversight on the 
questions of how the United States Government spends America's money 
have a responsibility to ask some tough and serious questions about 
what has and what has not been accomplished with the opportunity for 
progress that our $3 billion and 20,000 troops have provided to Haiti.
  The Clinton administration owes us some answers. From there, we are 
obligated to ask the big question: Why should the American taxpayers 
continue to send more of their dollars to Haiti? Why? Because while the 
administration may choose to measure progress in Haiti by whether or 
not the elections are held, full, free, fair, democratic, and 
transparent or not, and they were not, Americans know that there is 
more to the substance of democracy than just the act of holding 
elections, especially elections that were impacted by armed thugs and 
blatant intimidation, as was reported this very morning in the Miami 
Herald.
  We need some explanations from the White House. We need them now. We 
need not to spend any more good money where bad has been invested.

                          ____________________