COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELTON GALLEGLY, California SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas DAVID FUNDERBURK, North Carolina STEVEN J. CHABOT, Ohio MARSHALL "MARK" SANFORD, South Carolina MATT SALMON, Arizona AMO HOUGHTON, New York LEE H. HAMILTON, Indiana ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ROBERT E. ANDREWS, New Jersey ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey SHERROD BROWN, Ohio CYNTHIA A. MCKINNEY, Georgia VICTOR O. FRAZER, Virgin Islands (Ind.) RICHARD J. GARON, Chief of Staff MICHAEL H. VAN DUSEN, Democratic Chief of Staff CONTENTS WITNESSES Robert S. Gelbard, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics James F. Dobbins, Special Haiti Coordinator, Department of State Letters dated January 3, 1996, to Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman from Wendy Sherman, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Department of State 85 Letter dated July 11, 1995, to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of the Republic of Haiti from William Lacy Swing, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti 95 Letter dated March 22, 1995, to Jean Joseph Exume, Minister of Justice, Responses to questions from: Department of State Federal Bureau of Investigation Department of Justice ..... Additional information provided by the Department of Justice .................... 99 101 102 HAITI: HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLICE ISSUES THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1996 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. (chairman of the committee) presiding. Washington, DC. 10:05 a.m., in room Benjamin A. Gilman Chairman GILMAN. The committee will come to order. The first order of business today before we begin our hearing is to welcome the newest member of our committee, Mr. Tom Campbell of California. He is a distinguished former Member, recently returned to this House to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of our former colleague, the gentleman from California, Mr. Mineta. Congressman Campbell has most recently served in the California State Senate and as a professor of law at Stanford University. Before service in the House, he served with the Federal Trade Commission, he was a White House fellow, a lawyer in private practice, and as a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White. Mr. Campbell holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, for which we will forgive him, and a B.A. and a Ph.D., all in economics, from the University of Chicago. We warmly welcome you to our committee, Mr. Campbell. Chairman GILMAN. I will be pleased to yield to the Ranking Minority Member, Mr. Hamilton. Mr. HAMILTON. Let me join with the chairman in welcoming Mr. Campbell to the committee. He served in the Congress with very great distinction previously. We are delighted to have him back, and especially pleased to have him on this committee. That is quite a resumé he has. He is going to increase the intellectual level of this committee quite a lot. We are glad to have you, Tom, and welcome to the committee. Chairman GILMAN. Mr. Roth. Mr. ROTH. I would like to join you and the Ranking Member in welcoming Mr. Campbell. I have known him and worked with him on the Banking Committee, and I am pleased to see he is again going to sit on both the Banking Committee and on this committee. It is a great delight to have Tom back. We are looking forward to the questions that he has for our witnesses, too. Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Roth. Are there other members seeking recognition? Mrs. MEYERS. I would like to add my words to those of our committee members and say how pleased we are to have Tom with us on the committee. Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Chairman, is it my understanding that there will be an additional Democratic slot open? Chairman GILMAN. We are taking that under consideration and working on that at the present time. Mr. CAMPBELL, Mr. Chairman. Chairman GILMAN. Mr. Campbell. Mr. CAMPBELL. To respond to your gracious words and those of the Ranking Member and my colleagues, thank you. It is an honor to be back in the Congress and particularly to serve on this committee of such distinguished leadership. I look forward to our time together. Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Campbell. The hearing on human rights and police issues in Haiti will now come to order. Without question, the human rights situation in Haiti has significantly improved since the U.S. intervention in September 1994. Administration witnesses have emphasized that point repeatedly, and it is anticipated that it will be reiterated once again this morning. Even so, there has been a distressing pattern of violence involving an estimated 20 political killings since our nation's intervention. Most of those victims have been opponents of President JeanBertrand Aristide. The FBI has been asked to investigate the killing of attorney Mireille Bertin, a strong opponent of Mr. Aristide, who was shot dead in broad daylight in Port-au-Prince March 28, 1995. We have been informed that there is evidence connecting the Bertin killing with the murders of other Aristide opponents. We are concerned, too, whether a conspiracy exists among some Haitians to eliminate President Aristide's opponents and whether they were trying to hide this from the FBI. There is some question whether we are being negative by focusing on what may appear to be a relatively small number of human rights violations in Haiti. Others contend that the presence of 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers and a $2 billion intervention have prevented temporarily much worse political violence. Actually, this hearing is less about Haiti and more about the responsibility of our State Department to adequately and accurately respond to congressional queries on the critical issues pertaining to our relationship with Haiti. It is not enough to state that President Aristide, whom the Administration restored to power at great expense, is doing better than the authoritarian military junta which we threw out. The American people have a right to expect more from this kind of a policy, and the Congress needs full, accurate, and timely information on which to base its own actions. This morning we are seeking answers to some of the following questions: Did the Haitian Government obstruct the FBI's investigation into the murder of Mireille Bertin? What have been the results of the FBI's investigation and the Haitian Government's investigation? |