#3247: Re: Toussaint and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

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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