[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 60 (Friday, May 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4280-S4281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 HAITI

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I would like at this point to turn to a 
topic that I began the discussion about this morning. That is the topic 
of Haiti.
  I said this morning, Mr. President, that the situation in Haiti is at 
another critical point. President Clinton will meet tomorrow with the 
President of Haiti, President Preval. In that discussion, what will 
take place, I think, is very, very important.
  I talked earlier today about my recent trip to Haiti, which was the 
fourth trip that I have taken to Haiti in the last 2 years.
  I talked about what I considered to be some of the imperatives, some 
of the things that absolutely have to take place if this fledgling 
democracy in Haiti is to survive.
  They have to have privatization. They have a schedule now for 
privatization. It is laid out with a timetable. Everyone who I talked 
to in Haiti, all Government officials, assured me that they would 
follow this timetable. But, as I expressed to them, no one, frankly, in 
this country is going to take that seriously until we actually see 
privatization take place.
  So it is important that, as we approach the date of the first 
privatization in July, it actually takes place. It is important because 
that democracy cannot survive just on elections. People have to have 
hope. People will only have hope if there is food to feed their 
children and if there is hope and opportunity for their future and the 
future of their children. That will only occur if some of the state-
controlled industries that have really strangled the economy in Haiti 
for so long can be freed up, if they can be privatized, and if the 
economy can then begin to grow.
  Privatization is also important because by privatizing these 
industries, that will send a sign to the international community that 
the leadership in Haiti, from President Preval down, is in fact serious 
about doing the things to create a market-oriented economy that will in 
fact allow Haiti's economy to begin to grow.
  That is No. 1.
  No. 2 is Haiti must make progress in regard to these high-profile 
political murders. Based on my own investigation when I went to Haiti, 
I believe they have the capability of doing this. I believe that some 
of these cases can in fact be solved--the case for example, of Reverend 
Leroy. I believe that case can be solved. But it can only be solved if 
there is political leadership. It can only be solved if there is 
leadership from the top, from President Preval down saying it is a 
priority that we bring these people who committed this act to justice.
  I would like to turn now, Mr. President, to a third area; that is, 
the agricultural situation in Haiti.
  Seventy percent of Haiti's people live in rural areas. That is about 
4 million out of a total population of 7 million. Eighty percent, it is 
estimated, of these rural Haitians farm on hillsides. But Haiti's 
agriculture clearly is troubled, to say the least. Haiti loses about 36 
million metric tons of topsoil every year to erosion. That is enough to 
cover, they tell me, about 15,000 acres. About half a million people in 
the northwest part of Haiti are facing today a very serious drought.
  Mr. President, 30 years or so ago Haiti produced most of its own 
food. Today it imports two-thirds of its food. Haiti is having trouble 
feeding itself, and a number of causes have been assigned to that. I 
will mention just a few.
  The environment in Haiti is certainly fragile. Seventy percent is 
hillside land. Intensive cropping of 60 percent of the land-surface 
businesses have been decapitalized--less capital. Effective loss of 
capital has been magnified by the 1991-1994 embargo. Land plots are 
sometimes too small. There is a lack of land security under the land 
tenure system, and, as a result of the country's weak infrastructure, 
farmers are many times isolated from their markets.
  The USAID has instituted two programs to address these programs. The 
Agriculturally Sustainable Systems for Environmental Transformation, or 
ASSET, as it is called, is a $45 million program to improve hillside 
farming to help poor urban neighborhoods, improve water supply and 
waste management, and strengthen the Haitian Government's agricultural 
food security and environmental policy.
  Mr. President, the Program for the Recovery of the Economy in 
Transition, or PRET, is an $8 million program aimed at strengthening 
the Haitian private sector's role in national economic and business 
policymaking, providing innovative sources of credit, and helping key 
industries export the domestic market potential.
  Mr. President, under ASSET's coffee project, USAID has helped over 
20,000 coffee farmers produce a premium coffee that is now marketed 
under the trademark of ``Haitian Blue.'' Since 1990, farmers have 
exported almost 200,000 pounds of this coffee. USAID has implemented a 
program of tree planting to reverse the impact of almost 30 million 
trees being cut each year. USAID plans to expand the ASSET program to 
assist the Haitian Government in establishing an agricultural data 
collection system, disseminate technology, and provide environmental 
management.

  There is currently not a single--this is amazing--not a single source 
of information on agricultural production in Haiti, no central 
collection of this data, even though agricultural production affects 
the lives of approximately 70 percent of the people who live in Haiti.
  The USAID Agribusiness Loan Guarantee Fund provides incentives for 
financial institutions to extend credit to midsized agribusinesses. By 
financing these businesses such lending institutions also help small 
farmers from whom the middlemen buy their goods. In the first 18 months 
of its operation, the fund had resulted in 1,300 permanent jobs and 
10,000 seasonal jobs.
  While our program has shown some success, I think it is important to 
point out to my colleagues in the Senate that United States assistance 
in the agricultural area still only reaches approximately 1 out of 7 
Haitian farmers. Clearly the goal of our policy is and always must be 
self-sufficiency for Haiti.
  The outlines of the bipartisan United States policy toward Haiti I 
think are clear. The United States should help Haiti become self-
sufficient in food. We should help them build a system of law and 
order. After all, United States law enforcement is the best in the 
world and the Haitians can benefit greatly from our expertise. We 
should help the Haitians attract the kind of private investment that is 
the cornerstone of long-term economic growth.
  I cannot stress enough that our good intentions cannot succeed, will 
not succeed in and of themselves. No matter how much we want to help 
Haiti, there is a limit to what we can do.

[[Page S4281]]

 There is a limit to what we will do. Ultimately, the democracy that is 
slowly growing in Haiti can only be preserved by Haitians themselves. 
Haiti has to have the will, Haiti has to have the perseverance to carry 
through with the real reforms that we have talked about today. And that 
is what I believe President Clinton must underscore in the conversation 
that he will have tomorrow with Haitian President Preval. Our message 
to President Preval and to the Haitian people must be very simply this: 
We can help you, we will help you, but the destiny of your country 
really lies in your own hands.

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