Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much, the First Lady and my old friend John Brademas, and to all of you who have agreed to serve and your…”

“Thank you very much, the First Lady and my old friend John Brademas, and to all of you who have agreed to serve and your friends and supporters who are here. I thank you for coming. Before I make the remarks that I want to make to you, I believe, in view of the events of the last few days and particularly the events of the last 24 hours, I should make a short statement about the situation in Haiti. The deployment of our forces there is now going quite well. As a result of the agreement we have reached last weekend, we now have 8,500 United States troops who have entered Haiti peacefully without any resistance. The multinational force, which was enhanced today by the decision of Australia to join, will soon be in a position to carry out its overriding mission, to ensure the transfer of power from the de facto military leaders to the democratically elected government of Haiti by October 15th. I must also tell you how strongly we condemned yesterday's police violence there. Such conduct cannot and will not be tolerated. General Shelton, our commander on the ground, has met with the Haitian military and police officials today and made clear our policy to them. During this transition period, the Haitian military will carry out basic police functions. Our Armed Forces cannot and will not become Haiti's police force. But we can work to see that the Haitian military and police operate in a responsible and professional manner.…”