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Edited on Thu Mar-04-04 10:24 AM by seemslikeadream
HAITI -- (Senate - March 03, 2004)
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Mr. DODD. Secondly, on an unrelated matter, I was alarmed but not terribly surprised to pick up the morning newspapers and to read what I thought might happen. I did not wish it to happen, but I thought it might happen in the island nation of Haiti.
Over the past weekend, I warned, as others did, if we did not step up and try to support a democratically elected government, albeit a flawed one but a democratically elected government, we would end up reaping what we sow. And we are doing just that.
In the headlines this morning we read things such as: Haiti rebel says he is in charge and has taken over down there. The man's name is Guy Philippe. This is a person who has a dreadful human rights record. These are people who ran death squads and are involved in the drug trades. They are now taking over. Anarchy apparently is reigning in the island nation of Haiti.
Parts of this article state the country is in my hands, this so-called rebel leader says. Although American officials denounced the armed rebels and said they should have no role in ruling Haiti, the American forces did not take any action to counter them at all. They have now taken over in that country and are apparently in charge down there. Anarchy is reigning. There are bodies in the streets of Port-au-Prince.
What I feared might happen if we did not stand up and support a democratic government--and again I will say a flawed one, but when the United States decided we were going to put a foot in the back of this elected President and send him out of the country, we warned the vacuum would be filled by the worst elements. In fact, I read over last evening and this morning that Baby Doc Duvalier, the worst oppressive leader in that country, and his father, wants to come back to Haiti under this new operation that is going on down there.
I am terribly disappointed the administration failed to step to the plate. I knew it was going to be difficult, but if we cannot support democratically elected governments--and again I will repeat, whatever problems Aristide had, they were not a few; they were many.
Nonetheless, he was chosen by the people of that country on two different occasions, overwhelmingly so. If we are unwilling to stand and back democratically elected governments in this hemisphere and give a wink and a nod to those who replace governments that have been duly elected, we will see a repetition of what occurred in Haiti elsewhere. We are seeing it in Caracas, Venezuela, because we are endorsing the notion that when we don't like leaders in certain countries, we will ignore the chaos that can result from changing of government other than through the normal means of elected government. That is something that can happen, and it has happened.
So I rise to express my deep disappointment that once again the administration, in this hemisphere, is just failing terribly, and Haiti is a classic example of failure. We now have a huge mess on our hands.
I pointed out the other day, 30 percent of the population of the Bahamas is now Haitian. Thirty percent of that country is now occupied by people who have fled Haiti because of the repression and economic conditions in that nation. Twenty percent of children never reach the age of 5 in Haiti. The average income is $250. It is a poor Black country, and as a result I don't think we give it the kind of support we should have been giving it.
In fact, over the last 36 months we embargoed any assistance directed to the Government of Haiti. What kind of a country do we live in today that turns to a nation only 300 or 400 miles off our shore, with people living in desperate conditions, with the highest rate of AIDS in the hemisphere, and we have virtually nothing to say to them. Here we have today, once again, these impoverished, poor people down there, who had to live under dreadful governments over the years, finally get one they elect democratically, and because we don't like it, it is a failed leadership in our view, we walk away from it, and now you have thugs running the place again. It is not all our fault but, Mr. President a large part is. I am terribly disappointed about what has happened, and I wanted to rise this morning to express those sentiments.
http://thomas.loc.gov/r108/r108.html |
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