[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 19 (Monday, May 16, 1994)]
[Pages 1010-1014]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing William H. Gray III as Special Adviser on Haiti and 
an Exchange With Reporters

May 8, 1994

    The President. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I want to speak 
for a few moments about the crisis in Haiti, the challenge it poses to 
our national interests, and the new steps I am taking to respond.
    Three and a half years ago, in free and fair elections, the people 
of Haiti chose Jean-Bertrand Aristide as their President. Just 9 months 
later, their hopes were dashed when Haiti's military leaders overthrew 
democracy by force. Since then, the military has murdered innocent 
civilians, crushed political freedom, and plundered Haiti's economy.
    From the start of this administration, my goal has been to restore 
democracy and President Aristide. Last year, we helped the parties to 
negotiate the Governors Island accord, a fair and balanced agreement 
which laid out a road map for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. But 
late last year, the Haitian military abrogated the agreement, and since 
then they have rejected every effort to achieve a political settlement.
    At the same time, the repression and bloodshed in Haiti have reached 
alarming new proportions. Supporters of President Aristide, and many 
other Haitians, are being killed and mutilated. This is why 6 weeks ago 
I ordered a review of our policy toward Haiti. As a result of this 
review, we are taking several steps to increase pressure on Haiti's 
military while addressing the suffering caused by their brutal misrule. 
We are stepping up our diplomatic efforts, we are intensifying 
sanctions, and we are adapting our migration policy.
    Let me describe these steps. First, to bring new vigor to our 
diplomacy, I am pleased to announce that Bill Gray, president of the 
United Negro College Fund, former House majority whip, and chair of the 
House Budget Committee, has accepted my invitation to serve as special 
adviser to me and to the Secretary of State on Haiti. Bill is here with 
his wife, on his way to the inauguration of President Mandela in South 
Africa, and I will ask him to speak in just a few moments. But let me 
just say that he is a man of vision and determination, of real strength 
and real creativity. And I appreciate his willingness to accept this 
difficult and challenging assignment. He will be the point man in our 
diplomacy and a central figure in our future policy deliberations.
    As part of our diplomatic efforts, we will work with the United 
Nations to examine the changes in the proposed U.N. military and police 
mission in Haiti. We want to ensure that once Haiti's military leaders 
have left, this mission can do its job effectively and safely.
    Second, the U.S. is leading the international community in a drive 
to impose tougher sanctions on Haiti. On Friday, the U.N. Security 
Council unanimously adopted a resolution we had proposed to tighten 
sanctions on everything but humanitarian supplies, to prevent Haiti's 
military leaders and their civilian allies from leaving the country, to 
promote a freeze of their assets worldwide, and to ban nonscheduled 
flights in and out of Haiti. U.S. naval vessels will continue to enforce 
these sanctions vigorously.

[[Page 1011]]

    We are also working with the Dominican Republic to improve sanctions 
enforcement along that nation's border with Haiti. To shield the most 
vulnerable Haitians from the worst effects of the sanctions, we will 
increase both humanitarian aid and the number of U.N. and OAS human 
rights monitors in Haiti.
    While these stronger sanctions will cause more hardships for 
innocent Haitians, we must be clear: The military leaders bear full 
responsibility for this action. They can stop the suffering of their 
people by giving up power, as they themselves agreed to do, and allowing 
the restoration of democracy and the return of President Aristide.
    Third, I am announcing certain changes in our migration policy 
toward Haiti. Currently, Haitians seeking refugee status, including 
those interdicted at sea, are interviewed only in Haiti and not beyond 
its shores. Our processing centers, which have been dramatically 
expanded in this administration, are doing a good job under bad 
circumstances.
    In 1993, we processed and approved about 10 times the number of 
refugee applicants as in 1992. In recent months, however, I have become 
increasingly concerned that Haiti's declining human rights situation may 
endanger the safety of those who have valid fears of political 
persecution, who flee by boat, and who are then returned to Haiti where 
they are met at the docks by Haitian authorities before they can be 
referred to in-country processing.
    Therefore, I have decided to modify our procedures. We will continue 
to interdict all Haitian migrants at sea, but we will determine aboard 
ship or in other countries, which ones are bona fide political refugees. 
Those who are not will still be returned to Haiti, but those who are 
will be provided refuge. We will also approach other countries to seek 
their participation in this humanitarian endeavor.
    The new procedures will begin once we have the necessary 
arrangements in place. This will take some weeks. Until then, the 
Haitians must understand that we will continue to return all boat 
migrants to Haiti. Even under the new procedures, there will be no 
advantage for Haitians with fears of persecution to risk their lives at 
sea if and when they can assert their claims more safely at a processing 
center in Haiti.
    The ultimate solution to this crisis, however, is for the military 
leaders to keep their own commitment to leave, so that Haiti's people 
can build a peaceful and prosperous future in their own country.
    I am committed to making these new international sanctions work. At 
the same time, I cannot and should not rule out other options. The 
United States has clear interests at stake in ending this crisis. We 
have an interest in bolstering the cause of democracy in the Americas. 
We have an interest in ensuring the security of our citizens living and 
working in Haiti. We have an interest in stopping the gross human rights 
violations and abuses of the military and their accomplices. And we 
clearly have a humanitarian interest in preventing a massive and 
dangerous exodus of Haitians by sea.
    The steps I have announced today are designed to relieve suffering, 
redouble pressure, and restore democracy. Working with the Haitian 
people and the world community, we will try to advance our interests and 
give Haiti an opportunity to build a future of freedom and hope. They 
voted for it, and they deserve the chance to have it.
    Mr. Gray.

[At this point, Mr. Gray accepted the President's appointment and stated 
that he would work with commitment and determination to end the 
suffering in Haiti.]

    Q. Mr. President, what makes you believe that these sanctions, these 
new policies on returning Haitian refugees to Haiti will work this time? 
Haven't they been tried before and found to be unreliable or to 
encourage people to----
    The President. Before, when they were tried, the circumstances were 
somewhat different. First of all, let me answer the question about why 
we would undertake to change the policy, even though there is clearly 
some logistical challenge involved in doing so.
    I ordered the review of this policy 6 weeks ago when we began first 
to get intelligence reports and then clear news reports that there was 
increasing violence against citizens of Haiti who did not agree with the 
policies

[[Page 1012]]

of the military regime--and indeed, some of them seem to not be 
political at all--of people not only being killed but being mutilated. 
It seems to me reasonable to assume that some of the people who are 
fleeing by boat are in that group of people who also are fearful of 
their lives. And the way the boat return has worked so far is that we 
take the people back, let them off at the dock at Port-au-Prince. They 
are then--by and large, they have been free to go to the in-country 
processing. But they are subject to the authority of the Haitian police 
at that moment. And I simply think that the risks of that cannot be 
justified, given the increased level of political violence in the 
country. Therefore, I think we have to change the policy.
    Now, why do I think it will work? First, we've studied what happened 
before when the policy of inspection of people at sea occurred, and we 
have determined that two things ought to be done. First, we ought to 
look for a third-country processing center. And second, if we do it at 
sea, we ought not to do it on the Coast Guard cutters, which can be 
quickly overrun in their capacity, but to do it on bigger ships.
    We believe if--given a little time to organize this logistically, we 
can handle it. Also, it will be clear that we are not changing our 
policy, which is the law of the United States with regard to economic 
refugees. People who seek to come to the United States for economic 
reasons only, are not eligible for this kind of status.
    So we will do these reviews. We think we can do them fairly quickly, 
in a matter of a few days, and then return those who should be returned 
and take those who should be taken into the United States.
    Ron [Ron Fournier, Associated Press].
    Q. Are you in danger, sir, of sending signals that could open the 
floodgates for Haitian refugees? And how much, if any, did the fast play 
into your decisionmaking process?
    The President. First, let me answer your first question. I hope that 
we will not have a flood of refugees, but we are increasing our naval 
resources to deal with them. We are not changing our policy about who 
can come and who cannot. That is a matter of American law. We are not 
able to do that, nor should we do that.
    But I don't believe the policy we have now is sustainable, given the 
level of political violence against innocent civilians in Haiti. We have 
to try to implement this policy. I believe we can, and I think, as we do 
it firmly, the Haitian people will see we are not opening the floodgates 
for indiscriminate refugee migration into the United States but that we 
are going to try to find those people who have left because they have a 
genuine fear.
    The review of this policy began before Mr. Robinson's fast, but if 
you will go back, and when I was first asked about it I said that I did 
not mind his criticism of our policy, it obviously had not worked. I 
said that from day one. And I respect his conviction and his courage and 
his conscience. And I was gratified by the comments that he said today. 
And I'm glad that on this Mother's Day he's going to be having dinner 
with his wife tonight.
    Q. Mr. President, on sanctions, your former envoy to Haiti warns 
that the stricter sanctions will--could also ruin the situation on the 
ground in Haiti. It would make it impossible for President Aristide or 
for anyone Mr. Gray works with to set up there to bring democracy back. 
What kind of confidence do you have that economic sanctions are going to 
bring the military leaders out?
    The President. Well, I think the economic sanctions will have to be 
coupled with a vigorous and aggressive and broad-based diplomatic 
effort. And we are exploring all alternatives.
    As you know, we have been reluctant to impose the more severe 
sanctions, although President Aristide and many of the Friends of Haiti 
group, the French, the Canadians, others who have worked with us on this 
for a long time, since, have advocated this course. In my view, we must 
exhaust all available alternatives as we try to resolve this 
diplomatically. And I think it is an appropriate thing to do now.
    If we are successful in trying to bring back democracy and to 
restore not only President Aristide but the concept, the spirit that was 
in the Governors Island accord, that is, a broad-based, functioning 
representative government that can relate to the business community as 
well as to the ordinary citizens of Haiti, then we will have to get 
ourselves in

[[Page 1013]]

gear to try to make sure that that economy comes back as quickly as 
possible. We're trying to do that with South Africa and others. I think 
we'll be able to do it.
    Q. Mr. President, I don't understand why the administration is 
saying that it does not expect a large influx of Haitian refugees now. 
Are you saying effectively that you expect the results of the new policy 
will be the same as the results of the old policy?
    The President. No, I'm saying--I think there will be more--some more 
people in the sense that we will be reviewing more people 
simultaneously. That is, we will be reviewing people not only in the in-
country processing centers, but we'll be interviewing people either on 
boats or in a third country. But what I'm saying is that we have not 
broadened the criteria of eligibility for coming to the United States.
    I want to make this very clear. The problem with the present policy 
is--the present policy worked in 1993 up through the abrogation of the 
Governors Island accord and for some time thereafter in the sense that 
we did not have evidence of widespread indiscriminate killing of 
civilians. And we increased by tenfold, by tenfold, the number of people 
processed and the number of people approved for refuge in this country 
for 1993 over 1992.
    But when all this killing started, when it became obvious that the 
military leaders had no earthly intention of honoring Governors Island 
or anything approaching it or keeping their commitments, but instead 
were going to tolerate, organize, and abet increased killing in Haiti, 
it is logical to assume that some of those who get on the boats include 
not only economic refugees, who are the vast majority of them, but also 
some who genuinely fear for their lives. The only way we can get those 
people to the in-country processing is to let them off at the dock in 
Port-au-Prince where the police have jurisdiction. I do not believe that 
is a sustainable policy, either practically or morally, given the level 
of indiscriminate violence.
    So there may be some more people who get in because we'll be 
reviewing even more people. But it would be a great mistake for Haitians 
who want to come here for economic reasons to just take to the boats, 
because we are not changing the standard by which we admit people.
    Gwen [Gwen Ifill, New York Times].
    Q. It seems there are two outstanding problems. One is that 
Lieutenant General Cedras said this morning he doesn't really have any 
intention of stepping aside in order to replace--in order to make room 
for President Aristide, and that even your supporters on this policy are 
concerned that there is still no equivalency between what happens with 
the United States and Cuban immigrants and the United States and Haitian 
immigrants. How do you address those two things?
    The President. Well, I think we are going to have--we do have an 
equivalency in terms of people who get here. But we have an obligation 
to try to let the people who genuinely fear for their lives into this 
country. We are now going to do that without regard to whether they're 
processed in-country or on boats. Therefore, the legal standard is what 
it ought to be.
    The Cuban situation is unique in the sense that there is an act of 
Congress which has certain specifics about the Cuban situation which 
changes our relationship with Cuba to some extent. But this will 
alleviate the legitimate concern with regard to the Haitians, and I hope 
will minimize the likelihood that hundreds of people will die at sea 
innocently.
    Q. And about Lieutenant General Cedras?
    The President. Well, of course, he's going to say that. That's what 
he's been saying ever since--that's what he told us when he abrogated 
the Governors Island accord. ``I gave my word. I never expect President 
Aristide to keep his word. President Aristide called my bluff, kept his 
word, and so I'm going to shaft the agreement.'' That's what he said on 
September 30th. So he hasn't changed his mind since then. But we may be 
able to do better now. And I think the gentleman to my right is a person 
of extraordinary ability; maybe he can do some things we haven't done 
yet. We're going to give it our best shot.

[At this point, a Cuban-American thanked the President for his new 
policy on Haiti.]

    The President. Thanks.
    One more.
    Q. How long are you willing to give sanctions to take the desired 
effect?

[[Page 1014]]

    The President. I think I have to let Mr. Gray do a little work 
before I can answer that question.

Note: The President spoke at 3:15 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. Raoul Cedras, commander of 
the Haitian Army, and Randall Robinson, the executive director of 
TransAfrica Forum who fasted to protest U.S. policy in Haiti. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of these remarks.