[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 7, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E299-E300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY MUST PROMOTE DEMOCRACY IN HAITI

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 7, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to articulate how crucial it is 
for the international community to reach out to Haiti and help 
President-elect Rene Preval achieve his many goals for the impoverished 
I nation that is Haiti and to enter into the Record an editorial 
appearing in the New York CaribNews appealing for greater international 
involvement in the country.
  Preval's election represents what could be a potential turning point 
in the history of Haiti which has been marred by corruption, military 
intervention, violence and a stifling of the will of the people. Having 
served as president in the 1990s, Preval is the only elected president 
to have served out a full four-year term without being overthrown. In 
the elections held last month, Preval was clearly the choice of the 
masses with more than half of votes cast in his favor--leading his 
nearest rival, Leslie Manigat, a former president, who received only 12 
percent of votes.
  So far, the international community has acted on behalf of the 
Haitian people--urging the country's Electoral Council to declare 
Preval the winner and preventing further violence from spilling out 
through the entire country. By doing so, the will of the Haitian 
electorate was respected and protected.
  Now it up to the United States to step in and assist Preval in 
establishing his government. the government of the United States must 
act fast to secure the results and also begin providing humanitarian, 
economic and other forms of aid that President-elect Preval will need 
to build and sustain a viable government. I also urge that the 
transitional government of Haiti to actively engage in the transfer of 
power to Preval.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me again in calling on all the great nations 
of the international community to actively assist Haiti during its 
momentous transition to a democratically elected government.

              [From the New York CaribNews, Feb. 28, 2006]

                   Haiti Has a Chance To Move Forward

                              (Editorial)

       ``The international community must show the Haitian people 
     that it is sincere about ending their suffering.''
       U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, one of the strongest and 
     most consistent voices on Capitol Hill when it comes to 
     articulating Caribbean causes was right on the money as he 
     summarized the Haitian situation. His call on the world's 
     leading nations and many developing states to move swiftly to 
     improve the economic and social conditions in what is the 
     Western Hemisphere's poorest nations couldn't have come at a 
     better time.
       His plea to the United Nations, Washington, Paris, Ottawa, 
     Berlin, Brasilia, Santiago and other capitals which say they 
     have a keen interest in what happens in the French-speaking 
     Republic that's next door to the Dominican Republic was 
     voiced a few days after Rene' Preval had been declared the 
     winner in the February 7th presidential elections.
       If the same international community had previously shown 
     the resolve to end the Haitian nightmare that it demonstrated 
     last week to end the election stalemate, the world's oldest 
     Black Republic would have been spared the pain and trauma it 
     has endured for decades.
       By stepping in and forcing the incompetent and politically 
     bias Electoral Council to declare Preval the winner, the 
     countries with the resources and the influence to halt the 
     slide into anarchy avoided more spilling of blood and paved 
     the way for the will of 2.2 million Haitian voters to be 
     recognized.
       That it took eight days after the election to count the 
     votes and announce a winner was clear evidence of an attempt 
     by a handful of people, backed by the powerful business and 
     political elite to stop Preval, a former protege of ousted 
     President Jean Bertrand Aristide, from taking office after 
     the people had made a clear choice.
       Some 33 candidates had faced the electorate but Preval was 
     the only one with widespread national support, especially in 
     the urban slums of Port-au- Prince. That was seen in the fact 
     that his nearest rival, Leslie Manigat, a former President, 
     had received only 12 percent of the votes cast.
       Early in the count, Preval had secured a resounding 61 
     percent but mysteriously, his share of the votes cast began 
     to decline, so much so that by the time 90 percent of the 
     ballots had been tabulated he had only 48.7 percent, less 
     than two percent short of the 50 per cent plus one vote 
     needed to escape a run-off.
       Obviously, the Council and Preval opponents were 
     manipulating the process by invalidating almost 150,000 
     votes, many of them from the poorest areas of the country. 
     They claimed that the spoilt or blank votes which represented 
     about seven percent of the total had to be counted, never 
     mind that it was difficult to understand how so many Haitians 
     who had waited in line for hours, traveled long distances or 
     who had endured all kinds of hardship in order to select 
     their president would then turn around and turn

[[Page E300]]

     in blank ballots. It just didn't make sense. Several people 
     believed most of the blank votes were simply stuffed into the 
     ballot boxes to defraud Preval.
       Added to such election woes, almost 10 per cent of the 
     tally sheets disappeared and several supporters found 
     thousands of burned ballots smoldering in a garbage dump in 
     Port-au-Prince.
       The suspicions of fraud and the delay in announcing a 
     winner triggered pro-Preval demonstrations that virtually 
     shut down the capital and raised the real fair that riots 
     would turn deadly.
       The problem in the Caribbean country is that it doesn't 
     have a tradition of electoral politics and its fledging 
     democratic institutions are weak. The judiciary is far from 
     being indpendent and the security forces are untrained and 
     often heavy-handed. To add to such woes, the powerful elite 
     isn't concerned about the widespread poverty and illiteracy. 
     Instead, it is committed to furthering its nest at the 
     expense of progress and peace.
       What the country needs the most is a government committed 
     to economic and social progress. Such an administration would 
     need all of the help it can get from both inside and outside 
     of the country. Now that Preval has demonstrated that he has 
     the people's support through relatively free and fair 
     elections, the international community must step forward and 
     live up to its responsibility providing the much promised but 
     never delivered massive financial and technical support.
       At the same time Preval, who is the only elected President 
     to have served out a full four-year term without being 
     overthrown, must reach out to his opponents in a meaningful 
     fashion in order to be able to deliver on his election 
     promises.
       Just as important, the Haitian Diaspora in North America 
     must back the government and help to keep it focused on its 
     key task, and that is to lift the nation out of deep poverty 
     and despair.

                          ____________________