Bill Clinton: “Well, let's divide the two things if we can. First of all, as Amnesty International has recently reported, the human…”

“Well, let's divide the two things if we can. First of all, as Amnesty International has recently reported, the human rights violations in Haiti are on the increase; the use of murder, rape, and kidnaping as a means of maintaining political control has intensified; we have seen the gripping pictures of more people lying dead in the streets. I think, overwhelmingly, the reason for the increased exodus, people looking for safety, is the violation of human rights by military dictators who overturned a legitimate election and who broke their own word to leave. And I don't think we should lose sight of that. In the face of these continuing human rights violations and their intensification, the United States determined that its policy of direct return should be changed. I did not believe that policy was sustainable, given what we knew about what was happening in the human rights area and the fact that the government had blocked all reasonable attempts by citizens to restore economic growth and political democracy. Now, we have interest in what happens in Haiti. There are a million Haitian-Americans. There are thousands of American citizens trying to survive and live and work in Haiti. We have an interest in promoting democracy in the area. Cuba and Haiti are the only two countries in the entire hemisphere now that are not ruled by democratic governments. We have an interest in seeing that the United Nations and its work is upheld, and there was an agreement--the Governors Island Agreement-- signed in the United States in which the rulers, the military leaders committed to leave. So we have very clear and significant interests in addition to the massive outflow of people seeking refugee status in our country, which is a significant problem. But I want to divide what is happening there with the refugees from the question of how best to deal with it. We are working on very tough enforcement of the sanctions, and we have not ruled other options out. Decline of the Dollar”