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#3247: Re: Toussaint and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (fwd)
From: kevin pina <cariborganics@hotmail.com>
Interesting Background
SENATE RECORD VOTE ANALYSIS
105th Congress
1st Session
June 17, 1997, 12:02 pm
Page S-5733 Temp. Record
Vote No. 101
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REFORM/Haitians and Extrajudicial Killings
SUBJECT:
Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1997 . . . S. 903.
DeWine/Graham
modified amendment No. 383.
AMENDMENT AGREED TO, 98-0
SYNOPSIS:
As reported, S. 908, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring
Act of 1997,
will reorganize and consolidate
the foreign affairs agencies of the United States Government.
Arrearages of
$819 million to the United Nations will be paid over 3 years subject to
certain
conditions. The bill will authorize $6.08 billion in fiscal year (FY)
1998 and $5.93
billion in FY 1999 for the State Department and other foreign affairs
agencies, including
the Peace Corps.
The DeWine/Graham modified amendment would make numerous findings
on
extrajudicial and political killings in Haiti, and would deny visas and
entry into the
United States to Haitians who have been linked to such killings. The
Secretary of State,
on a case-by-case basis, could exempt a person from exclusion for
medical reasons or
because that person had cooperated fully with murder investigators. The
State
Department would be required to prepare a list of those people who have
credibly
been alleged to have been involved in extrajudicial and political
killings in Haiti and a list
of such people who have been denied visas and entry into the United
States. Finally, a
yearly report would be prepared on this issue until investigations were
completed and
all implicated individuals were prosecuted.
Those favoring the amendment contended:
Extrajudicial and political murders have been committed in Haiti
throughout the
1990s. Some of those killings occurred while former President Aristide
was in exile,
some occurred after he returned to office, and some have occurred under
his successor
President Preval. This murderous history of the 1990s is little
different from any other
decade in Haiti's history, despite the United States' efforts to
promote the rule of law
and democracy. The United States has expended approximately $2 billion
to prop up
the Haitian Government with U.S. troops. The effort first began when
President Clinton led the effort to restored Aristide to power, and it
continued last year when President Clinton had to rush in diplomatic
security officers to protect Aristide's
replacement,
President Preval, from his own palace security guards (who were trained
and equipped
by the United States). Despite U.S. support, the Haitian Government has
not been
eager to seek out and punish those people who have ordered or committed
these
murders. Currently, Haiti is supposedly investigating 80 of these
murders; to date, it
had brought charges against only one person (who was tried and
acquitted). Before
Aristide returned to power, most of the political killings were of his
supporters. After
his return, most of the killings have been of his opponents (political
and otherwise; his
next-door neighbor was murdered after refusing to sell his property to
Aristide; one of
the people implicated in that murder, Dany Toussaint, subsequently
obtained a green
card as an "agricultural worker" and is still in the United States).
This situation cannot
be allowed to continue. The Haitian people will never have confidence
in their
government if individuals within it can literally get away with murder.
The
DeWine/Graham amendment would deny visas to suspected murders like Dany
Toussaint as a way of signalling that the United States will no longer
accept
businessas usual. We urge its adoption.
No arguments were expressed in opposition to the amendment.
VOTING YEA:
Republicans:
(55 or 100%) Abraham Allard Ashcroft Bennett Bond Brownback Burns
Campbell
Chafee Coats Cochran Collins Coverdell Craig D'Amato DeWine Domenici
Enzi
Faircloth Frist Gorton Gramm Grams Grassley Gregg Hagel Hatch
HelmsHutchinson
Hutchison Inhofe Jeffords Kempthorne Kyl Lott Lugar Mack McCain
McConnell
Murkowski Nickles Roberts Roth Santorum Sessions Shelby Smith, Bob
Smith,
Gordon Snowe Specter Stevens Thomas Thompson Thurmond Warner
Democrats:
(43 or 100%) Akaka Baucus Biden Bingaman Boxer Breaux Bryan Bumpers
Byrd
Cleland Conrad Dodd Dorgan Durbin Feingold Feinstein Ford Glenn Graham
Hollings
Inouye JohnsonKennedy Kerrey Kerry Kohl Landrieu Lautenberg Leahy Levin
Lieberman Mikulski Moseley-Braun Moynihan Murray Reed Reid Robb
Rockefeller
Sarbanes Torricelli Wellstone Wyden
VOTING NAY:
Republicans:
(0 or 0%)
Democrats:
(0 or 0%)
NOT VOTING:
Republicans:
(0)
Democrats:
(2) Daschle-4 Harkin-2
ABSENCE CODE: 1-Official Business 2-Necessarily Absent 3-Illness
4-Other
Symbols: AY-Announced Yea AN-Announced Nay PY-Paired Yea PN-Paired Nay
Compiled and written by the staff of the Republican Policy
Committee
Larry E. Craig, Chairman
______________________________________________________
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