[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    HAITI'S FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS SHOULD HELP REVIVE HAITI'S FAILED 
                               DEMOCRACY

  (Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, today Haiti is a very grim place. The economy 
is in shambles, crime is prevalent, and the parliament is 
dysfunctional. There has been no progress scheduling necessary 
elections, despite President Preval's recent assurances he would.
  Another indication of how bad the situation has become in Haiti is 
the Clinton administration's refusal to certify Haiti as meeting its 
obligation in the war on drugs, even though U.S. taxpayers have spent 
millions of dollars in the past few years trying to build a competent 
police force in Haiti.
  Now we learn of the politically motivated murder, the brutal 
assassination of one of Haiti's nine remaining Senators on Monday. The 
predilection for solving Haiti's problems through violence continues as 
does the slide towards authoritarianism. Later this week I will join 
several of my colleagues in introducing a bipartisan resolution calling 
on the Organization of American States to intervene.
  The crown jewel of Clinton's foreign policy is tragically tarnished. 
It is time we stopped adding more to this bad debt.

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