[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16625-16626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  THE SITUATION IN HAITI IS DESPERATE

  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, nobody in the Clinton-Gore administration 
talks much about the situation in Haiti anymore, even though the 
situation there is very desperate. I find this regrettable because any 
reasonable observer will say that the Clinton-Gore policy has failed 
badly, that there is no democracy in Haiti, and that Haiti's leaders 
have returned to the old ways of solving problems through violence and 
intimidation, fear, repression, and even murder.
  The Haitian parliament has been shuttered since President Preval 
dissolved it in 1998. A few weeks ago, Haiti held elections that were 
supposed to have seated a new parliament and provided a road map out of 
the government crisis that has been going on so long; but Aristide 
partisans perverted the election process, producing election count 
results that no international observer is able to certify as 
legitimate.
  Haiti's friends around the world have weighed in with concern and 
condemnation, whether it is the OAS, CARICOM, the U.N., Japan, France, 
and so forth. But to illustrate what is really going on in Haiti, I 
want to tell the story of Mr. Leon Manus. Mr. Manus is the president of 
Haiti's provisional electoral council. That is the body that oversaw 
the recent balloting. It is a body that is meant to ensure full, fair, 
free, democratic, transparent elections; but one will not find 
President Manus in Port-au-Prince or anywhere else in Haiti, for that 
matter.

[[Page 16626]]

  The fact is that Mr. Manus was chased out of his country in fear of 
his life and his family's lives. He is here in the United States 
seeking political asylum.
  How did this happen? Why did this happen? According to an accurate 
report in the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Manus' relatives say that Manus 
was summoned to the presidential palace after the elections, where 
President Preval and former President Aristide pressured him to certify 
the recent fraudulent election count as valid, but Mr. Manus 
steadfastly refused.
  He would not be a party to corruption, and he left the presidential 
palace and began what turned out to be a several-day flight in fear of 
his life that eventually led him to the safety here in the United 
States of America.
  I recently had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Manus. I can say he 
is an absolutely committed man, committed to democracy and to a deep 
love for his family and his country. I think he wants nothing more than 
to return to his country and build a true democracy, but he cannot do 
so as long as the power in Haiti remains usurped by the new dictators 
there, and these are the very same folks the United States returned to 
power just a few years ago.
  Make no mistake about what is going on in Haiti. Certainly factions 
of the country have been slowly and deliberately silencing their 
enemies and laying the groundwork for totalitarian rule, which we 
witnessed today. These people are not interested in democracy. They are 
not interested in helping their people find a better life, and they 
desperately need one in Haiti. They are only interested in preserving 
their own power; and as all of this has gone on, the Clinton and Gore 
administration has been inept and in denial.
  Time and time again they have passed up opportunity to make clear to 
the Haitian leadership what it means to practice democracy, to build 
democratic institutions. I cannot fathom why they continue to defend 
the situation in Haiti or aid and abet the activities of the Aristide 
crowd. They are not Democrats.
  Given this total failure, Congress must act to help stop the move 
toward dictatorship in Haiti. In this year's foreign operations bill, 
the House voted to prohibit any aid to the government of Haiti with a 
few exceptions such as counterdrug assistance and humanitarian food aid 
for the people and medicine for the sick. This is a good first step, 
but there is plenty more to be done.
  Another good and logical step would be for the United States to 
revoke visas issued to corrupt Haitian government officials who are 
credibly alleged to be involved in narcotics trafficking, money 
laundering, and other crimes. Haiti's leaders have turned their backs 
on democracy and, saddest of all, have turned their backs on their own 
people.
  The Clinton administration has fumbled U.S. policy toward Haiti at a 
cost of billions to the American taxpayer and immeasurable suffering to 
the Haitian people.
  Mr. Speaker, I challenge the Clinton-Gore administration to publicly 
admit their failure in Haiti, and I invite them to join in a policy 
that supports democracy rather than Aristide and his cronies.

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