Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 102 Part 5.djvu/904

 102 STAT. 4910

CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS—OCT. 6, 1988

General Henri Namphy assumed power and, with the support of remnants of Duvalier's private army, the Tonton Macoutes, began terrorizing the Haitian people; Whereas as this campaign of terror against the Haitian people culminated on September 11, 1988, in the murder of 13 Haitians when elements of the Tonton Macoutes viciously attacked worshippers attending a Sunday morning mass at Saint Jean Bosco Roman Catholic Church in Port-au-Prince and subsequently attacks were carried out against political party headquarters and radio stations and two other churches were burned; Whereas noncommissioned officers in the Haitian military, upset by increasing human rights abuses perpetrated by a military government including Duvalierists and Tonton Macoutes, overthrew the Namphy regime and installed Lieutenant General Prosper Avril as Haiti's new president on September 17; Whereas Lieutenant General Avril has said that the final objective of his military government will be to implement democracy; Whereas, upon taking power General Avril proclaimed "We dream of a Haiti where liberty will flourish, where human rights will be guaranteed and dialogue will be honored for the sake of national reconciliation, and where the economic stagnation in which the country is floundering will disappear for the greatest good of the greatest number"; and Whereas the continuing popular unrest in Haiti since the exile of President-For-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier is a clear indication that the people of Haiti will continue to risk their lives for the opportunity to select their own leaders through free, fair, and open elections: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring). That it is the sense of the Congress that the resumption of economic or any other assistance by the United States to the Government of Haiti should be clearly linked to tangible actions by the Government of Haiti to— (1) embark upon a credible transition to democracy that will include restoring the 1987 Constitution, appointing a genuinely independent electoral commission to oversee elections, and most important, announcing a date certain for elections that will lead to a democratic government led by civilians; (2) strictly observe human and civil rights and in so doing take immediate steps to disarm and restrain the remnants of Duvalier's private army, the Tonton Macoutes, and to institute a judicial process whereby human rights violations will be vigorously investigated and violators will be brought to justice; (3) reform a corrupt bureaucracy; (4) promote economic development that will benefit the Haitian people by providing the security and freedom of association necessary for bottom-up, grass-roots development; (5) improve cooperation between the United States and Haiti in dealing with the growing problem of narcotics trafficking through Haiti and to take meaningful steps to halt the involvement of the Haitian military in the transshipment of illicit drugs; and (6) demonstrate the willingness of the Haitian armed forces to submit to legally constituted civilian authority and to fully respect and abide by the Constitution of Haiti. SEC. 2. It is further the sense of the Congress that— (1) there will be no resumption of regularized and sustained government-to-government assistance, as part of a normaliza-

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