    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [September 15, 1994]
    [Pages 1558-1561]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1558]]

    Address to the Nation on Haiti
    September 15, 1994

        My fellow Americans, tonight I want to speak with you about why the
    United States is leading the international effort to restore democratic
    government in Haiti.
        Haiti's dictators, led by General Raoul Cedras, control the most
    violent regime in our hemisphere. For 3 years, they have rejected every
    peaceful solution that the international community has proposed. They
    have broken an agreement that they made to give up power. They have
    brutalized their people and destroyed their economy. And for 3 years, we
    and other nations have worked exhaustively to find a diplomatic
    solution, only to have the dictators reject each one.
        Now the United States must protect our interests, to stop the brutal
    atrocities that threaten tens of thousands of Haitians, to secure our
    borders, and to preserve stability and promote democracy in our
    hemisphere and to uphold the reliability of the commitments we make and
    the commitments others make to us.
        Earlier today, I ordered Secretary of Defense Perry to call up the
    military reserve personnel necessary to support United States troops in
    any action we might undertake in Haiti. I have also ordered two aircraft
    carriers, the U.S.S. Eisenhower and the U.S.S. America into the region.
    I issued these orders after giving full consideration to what is at
    stake. The message of the United States to the Haitian dictators is
    clear: Your time is up. Leave now, or we will force you from power.
        I want the American people to understand the background of the
    situation in Haiti, how what has happened there affects our national
    security interests and why I believe we must act now. Nearly 200 years
    ago, the Haitian people rose up out of slavery and declared their
    independence. Unfortunately, the promise of liberty was quickly snuffed
    out, and ever since, Haiti has known more suffering and repression than
    freedom. In our time, as democracy has spread throughout our hemisphere,
    Haiti has been left behind.
        Then, just 4 years ago, the Haitian people held the first free and
    fair elections since their independence. They elected a parliament and a
    new President, Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest who
    received almost 70 percent of the vote. But 8 months later, Haitian
    dreams of democracy became a nightmare of bloodshed. General Raoul
    Cedras led a military coup that overthrew President Aristide, the man
    who had appointed Cedras to lead the army. Resistors were beaten and
    murdered. The dictators launched a horrible intimidation campaign of
    rape, torture, and mutilation. People starved; children died; thousands
    of Haitians fled their country, heading to the United States across
    dangerous seas. At that time, President Bush declared the situation
    posed, and I quote, ``an unusual and extraordinary threat to the
    national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.''
        Cedras and his armed thugs have conducted a reign of terror,
    executing children, raping women, killing priests. As the dictators have
    grown more desperate, the atrocities have grown ever more brutal. Recent
    news reports have documented the slaying of Haitian orphans by the
    nation's deadly police thugs. The dictators are said to suspect the
    children of harboring sympathy toward President Aristide for no other
    reason than he ran an orphanage in his days as a parish priest. The
    children fled the orphanages for the streets. Now they can't even sleep
    there because they're so afraid. As one young boy told a visitor, ``I do
    not care if the police kill me because it only brings an end to my
    suffering.''
        International observers uncovered a terrifying pattern of soldiers
    and policemen raping the wives and daughters of suspected political
    dissidents, young girls, 13, 16 years old; people slain and mutilated,
    with body parts left as warnings to terrify others; children forced to
    watch as their mothers' faces are slashed with machetes. A year ago, the
    dictators assassinated the Minister of Justice. Just last month, they
    gunned down Father Jean-Marie Vincent, a peasant leader and close friend
    of Father Aristide. Vincent was executed on the doorstep of his home, a
    monastery. He refused to give up his ministry, and for that, he was
    murdered.
        Let me be clear: General Cedras and his accomplices alone are
    responsible for this suffering

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    and terrible human tragedy. It is their actions that have isolated
    Haiti.
        Neither the international community nor the United States has sought
    a confrontation. For nearly 3 years, we've worked hard on diplomatic
    efforts. The United Nations, the Organization of American States, the
    Caribbean community, the six Central American Presidents all have sought
    a peaceful end to this crisis. We have tried everything: persuasion and
    negotiation, mediation and condemnation. Emissaries were dispatched to
    Port-au-Prince and were turned away. The United Nations labored for
    months to reach an agreement acceptable to all parties.
        Then last year, General Cedras himself came here to the United
    States and signed an agreement on Governors Island in New York in which
    he pledged to give up power, along with the other dictators. But when
    the day came for the plan to take effect, the dictators refused to leave
    and instead increased the brutality they are using to cling to power.
        Even then, the nations of the world continued to seek a peaceful
    solution while strengthening the embargo we had imposed. We sent massive
    amounts of humanitarian aid, food for a million Haitians and medicine to
    try to help the ordinary Haitian people, as the dictators continued to
    loot the economy. Then this summer, they threw out the international
    observers who had blown the whistle on the regime's human rights
    atrocities.
        In response to that action, in July the United Nations Security
    Council approved a resolution that authorizes the use of all necessary
    means, including force, to remove the Haitian dictators from power and
    restore democratic government. Still, we continued to seek a peaceful
    solution, but the dictators would not even meet with the United Nations
    Special Envoy. In the face of this continued defiance and with
    atrocities rising, the United States has agreed to lead a multinational
    force to carry out the will of the United Nations.
        More than 20 countries from around the globe, including almost all
    the Caribbean community and nations from as far away as Poland, which
    has so recently won its own freedom, Israel and Jordan, which have been
    struggling for decades to preserve their own security, and Bangladesh, a
    country working on its own economic problems, have joined nations like
    Belgium and Great Britain. They have all agreed to join us because they
    think this problem in our neighborhood is important to their future
    interests and their security.
        I know that the United States cannot, indeed we should not, be the
    world's policemen. And I know that this is a time with the cold war over
    that so many Americans are reluctant to commit military resources and
    our personnel beyond our borders. But when brutality occurs close to our
    shores, it affects our national interests. And we have a responsibility
    to act.
        Thousands of Haitians have already fled toward the United States,
    risking their lives to escape the reign of terror. As long as Cedras
    rules, Haitians will continue to seek sanctuary in our Nation. This
    year, in less than 2 months, more than 21,000 Haitians were rescued at
    sea by our Coast Guard and Navy. Today, more than 14,000 refugees are
    living at our naval base in Guantanamo. The American people have already
    expended almost $200 million to support them, to maintain the economic
    embargo. And the prospect of millions and millions more being spent
    every month for an indefinite period of time loom ahead unless we act.
        Three hundred thousand more Haitians, 5 percent of their entire
    population, are in hiding in their own country. If we don't act, they
    could be the next wave of refugees at our door. We will continue to face
    the threat of a mass exodus of refugees and its constant threat to
    stability in our region and control of our borders.
        No American should be surprised that the recent tide of migrants
    seeking refuge on our shores comes from Haiti and from Cuba. After all,
    they're the only nations left in the Western Hemisphere where democratic
    government is denied, the only countries where dictators have managed to
    hold back the wave of democracy and progress that has swept over our
    entire region and that our own Government has so actively promoted and
    supported for years.
        Today, 33 of the 35 countries in the Americas have democratically
    elected leaders. And Haiti is the only nation in our hemisphere where
    the people actually elected their own government and chose democracy,
    only to have tyrants steal it away.
        There's no question that the Haitian people want to embrace
    democracy; we know it because they went to the ballot box and told the
    world. History has taught us that preserving democracy in our own
    hemisphere strengthens America's security and prosperity. Democracies
    here are more likely to keep the peace and to stabilize

    [[Page 1560]]

    our region. They're more likely to create free markets and economic
    opportunity, and to become strong, reliable trading partners. And
    they're more likely to provide their own people with the opportunities
    that will encourage them to stay in their nation and to build their own
    futures. Restoring Haiti's democratic government will help lead to more
    stability and prosperity in our region, just as our actions in Panama
    and Grenada did.
        Beyond the human rights violations, the immigration problems, the
    importance of democracy, the United States also has strong interests in
    not letting dictators, especially in our own region, break their word to
    the United States and the United Nations. In the post-cold-war world, we
    will assure the security and prosperity of the United States with our
    military strength, our economic power, our constant efforts to promote
    peace and growth. But when our national security interests are
    threatened, we will use diplomacy when possible and force when
    necessary.
        In Haiti, we have a case in which the right is clear, in which the
    country in question is nearby, in which our own interests are plain, in
    which the mission is achievable and limited, and in which the nations of
    the world stand with us. We must act.
        Our mission in Haiti, as it was in Panama and Grenada, will be
    limited and specific. Our plan to remove the dictators will follow two
    phases. First, it will remove dictators from power and restore Haiti's
    legitimate, democratically elected government. We will train a civilian-
    controlled Haitian security force that will protect the people rather
    than repress them. During this period, police monitors from all around
    the world will work with the authorities to maximize basic security and
    civil order and minimize retribution.
        The Haitian people should know that we come in peace. And you, the
    American people, should know that our soldiers will not be involved in
    rebuilding Haiti or its economy. The international community, working
    together, must provide that economic, humanitarian, and technical
    assistance necessary to help the Haitians rebuild.
        When this first phase is completed, the vast majority of our troops
    will come home, in months, not years. I want our troops and their
    families to know that we'll bring them home just as soon as we possibly
    can.
        Then, in the second phase, a much smaller U.S. force will join
    forces from other members of the United Nations. And their mission will
    leave Haiti after elections are held next year and a new Haitian
    government takes office in early 1996.
        Tonight I can announce that President Aristide has pledged to step
    down when his term ends, in accordance with the constitution he has
    sworn to uphold. He has committed himself to promote reconciliation
    among all Haitians and to set an historic example by peacefully
    transferring power to a duly elected successor. He knows, as we know,
    that when you start a democracy, the most important election is the
    second election. President Aristide has told me that he will consider
    his mission fulfilled not when he regains office but when he leaves
    office to the next democratically elected President of Haiti. He has
    pledged to honor the Haitian voters who put their faith in the ballot
    box.
        In closing, let me say that I know the American people are
    rightfully concerned whenever our soldiers are put at risk. Our
    volunteer military is the world's finest, and its leaders have worked
    hard to minimize risks to all our forces. But the risks are there, and
    we must be prepared for that.
        I assure you that no President makes decisions like this one without
    deep thought and prayer. But it's my job as President and Commander in
    Chief to take those actions that I believe will best protect our
    national security interests.
        Let me say again, the nations of the world have tried every possible
    way to restore Haiti's democratic government peacefully. The dictators
    have rejected every possible solution. The terror, the desperation, and
    the instability will not end until they leave. Once again, I urge them
    to do so. They can still move now and reduce the chaos and disorder,
    increase the security, the stability, and the safety in which this
    transfer back to democracy can occur.
        But if they do not leave now, the international community will act
    to honor our commitments; to give democracy a chance, not to guarantee
    it; to remove stubborn and cruel dictators, not to impose a future.
        I know many people believe that we shouldn't help the Haitian people
    recover their democracy and find their hard-won freedoms, that the
    Haitians should accept the violence and repression as their fate. But
    remember, the same was said

    [[Page 1561]]

    of a people who more than 200 years ago took up arms against a tyrant
    whose forces occupied their land. But they were a stubborn bunch, a
    people who fought for their freedoms and appealed to all those who
    believed in democracy to help their cause. And their cries were
    answered, and a new nation was born, a nation that ever since has
    believed that the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
    should be denied to none.
        May God bless the people of the United States and the cause of
    freedom. Good night.

    Note: The President spoke at 9 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White
    House.