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“VISIT TO THE CAPITOL OF HAITI'S SO-CALLED PRIME MINISTER” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2635-H2636 on May 5, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
VISIT TO THE CAPITOL OF HAITI'S SO-CALLED PRIME MINISTER
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cole). Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to place on the record what happened here today with the visit by Mr. Gerard Latortue, who is the illegally appointed Prime Minister of Haiti. Somebody invited him to come here to the House of Representatives; and two meetings were set up, one at 10:30 where members of the Congressional Black Caucus were invited to meet with him, and a later one at 1:30 where members of the Committee on International Relations were invited to meet with him.
Those meetings were not attended in any appreciable numbers by either the members of the Congressional Black Caucus at the 10:30 meeting or the members of the Committee on International Relations. Of the 39 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, I am told that perhaps maybe six people showed up; and for the Committee on International Relations, where there are 49 Members, 26 Republicans and 23 Democrats, only about six members of that committee showed up.
I think it is important to note that this took place. It is important for the world community to know and understand that just as CARICOM, that is, the nations of the Caribbean, rejected Latortue, and do not accept him as a legitimate representative of that government, the Congressional Black Caucus does not accept him and recognize him as a legitimate Prime Minister for Haiti; and it was indicated today by the lack of attendance.
It is important for me to say this because Latortue is trying to make the world community believe that he is gaining the support of the Congressional Black Caucus. That absolutely is not true. We consider that he was illegally appointed. It is in violation of the Haiti Constitution, and he is presiding over crisis and chaos in Haiti.
Haiti is worse off than it has ever been. Not only do we have killings that are going on every night; we have members of the Lavalas Party, the party of President Aristide, in hiding. They are being killed. Their lives are being threatened; but worse than that, this so-
called Prime Minister, Mr. Gerard Latortue, embraced the known killers who have occupied the northern part of Haiti and recently appeared on a platform with Mr. Guy Philippe, Mr. Louis Jodel Chamblain, Mr. Jean Tatoun, all of whom are known to be criminals. Mr. Guy Philippe is a known drug trafficker. Mr. Chamblain and Mr. Tatoun have been convicted in absentia for their role in the massacre of thousands of Haitians at Raboteau in 1994.
They were all in exile. They were all recruited to come back into Haiti and join with the so-called opposition, and they played a role in the coup d'etat. They threatened to kill President Aristide, and they are still running around Haiti, armed, trying to reestablish an army, recruiting Haitians, burning down police stations and killing members of Lavalas. This so-
called Prime Minister called them in a public meeting freedom fighters. It is so outrageous, it is so ridiculous, and that is one of the reasons he is not being accepted. He is not being respected, and he is not considered as a serious person with any leadership ability or any vision for Haiti's future.
So, let the record indicate that he came to the Capitol; that he was not received by any appreciable number of people; that he did not get his message across. We have said to the State Department and to Secretary Colin Powell that it is important, it is imperative that they arrest and incarcerate the thugs and the criminals who are in control of Haiti. There is no way that they can ask us to recognize this puppet and this puppet government and to recognize this illegally appointed so-called Prime Minister until at least they take those steps.
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