[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 25, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS UNITED ON HAITI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Cummings), the chairman of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, for calling this Special Order; and let me commend my 
colleagues, each of them, who gave eloquent speeches and for their 
involvement.
  We have an issue here that the Black Caucus stands united on. We are 
together. This is an issue that is extremely serious, because the 
people of Haiti have endured more than their share of struggle, unrest, 
and bloodshed.
  This January marks the bicentennial of the independence of Haiti in 
1804, the world's first black republic and the second country in the 
Western Hemisphere to gain its independence, a country that defeated 
the mighty armies of Napoleon, where Napoleon sent his own brother to 
fight in Haiti and Haiti defeated the great French military. And in 
their defeat of the great French military, the French government became 
poorer. They needed funds. They expended tremendous amounts of money on 
the war. Secondly, Haiti produced more income for the French republic 
than all of the 13 Colonies in the United States put together. What 
they exported, what was taken out of Haiti were valuable items.
  So we have a nation very strong and proud and important. We had a 
nation that Simon Bolivar lived in. He was a liberator of South 
America. He was in Haiti, and he lived there and he studied the 
valiance of the Haitian Army and went back and fought the Spanish and 
South America and Bolivia became an independent country. We have Haiti 
that caused the French, as I mentioned, to lose their financial 
resources and, therefore, had to sell to the United States the 
Louisiana Purchase, the Louisiana territory which was controlled by the 
French. That opened up the west. The Lewis and Clarke expedition 
started in St. Louis and went and explored the United States of 
America, once again Haiti's connection to the growth and development. 
In the battle of Savannah, 800 Haitians fought in the Revolutionary War 
for our independence from Britain. As a matter of fact, the United 
States would not recognize Haiti for over 50 years until after the 
Civil War because they always had a fear that Haitians would come 
through Florida and then, because there were more black people in the 
South than whites, they thought that this Haitian Army could lead 
liberations through the States of the South of the United States of 
America, so they would not recognize Haiti because they did not want a 
Haitian diplomat to come to the United States. It was not until after 
the Emancipation Proclamation, after the Civil War, that the United 
States Government appointed Frederick Douglass to be the council 
general to Haiti. The U.S. waited until they felt comfortable that a 
black diplomat could come to this country.
  So Haiti is involved with us. Our Marines went there in the 1900s and 
controlled, and we ran the country and we allowed dictators, Papa Doc 
and Baby Doc, to run that country.
  So we have a responsibility. We should be there currently. We should 
be there to tell those thugs and drug dealers and the former soldiers 
of Generals Cedras and Biambraz and the former police chief Michel 
Francois who was one of the coup plotters when President Aristide was 
sent out of the country, those thugs and criminals and drug dealers are 
coming back into the country. Who could we negotiate with when we see 
bans of thugs running down the street and President Aristide, who 
speaks six languages, French and Spanish fluently, he will speak in 
Spanish or in English and Patois, his own language, and Latin? We are 
saying that he is a person that we cannot negotiate with and we are 
going to deal with drug dealers and thugs and gangsters and murderers 
and former people from the old army?
  The answer is clear. We need to stand up now. We need to send 
resources into Haiti. We need to join with the international community, 
the French, the Canadians, the Venezuelans, the friends of Haiti who 
will come together, the Jamaicans, the South Africans. We must act; we 
must act now.

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