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Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I want to put some perspective on the amendment that h as just been offered by Senator Dole with respect to Haiti. First, I say without equivocation that I believe that the President's policy with respect to Haiti has been a tremendous success. I for one am proud of the decision that the President made to restore democracy to Haiti. I thought it was the right thing to do then, and it certainly has proved to be the case thus far.

Let's review for a moment what has happened since that dramatic moment last September when the President ordered the deployment of United States Forces to Haiti:

The multinational force was peacefully deployed, without loss of life, and facilitated the departure of the military coup leaders;

Conditions were created that permitted President Aristide to return to Haiti on October 15 to resume office;

The multinational force was replaced by a much smaller U.N. force with the number of U.S. troops significantly reduced;

The Government of Haiti conducted elections and run-offs to fill more than 2,000 parliamentary and municipal posts--the most complex elections in Haiti's history;

The Armed Forces have been effectively dissolved and the interim police force is being replaced with a professionally trained permanent force under civilian control;

The human rights situation, while by no means perfect, is light years better than 1 year ago when more than 3,000 Haitian were being killed annually.

The Haitian economy which suffered significant decline during the military coup has begun to turn around and show positive growth.

That is quite a remarkable set of accomplishments in a very short period of time. On October 15, President Aristide will truly have something to celebrate at the 1-year anniversary of his restoration to office.

We have all read press reports of the confusion and disorganization that surrounded last month's elections in Haiti. I would be the first to say that I would have preferred an electoral process that was picture perfect, and strictly by the book. That didn't happen. It didn't happen in large measure because the situation in Haiti isn't perfect--it is a desperately poor country in which at least 50 percent of the population cannot read or write.

It is a country that has been plagued by political violence for much of its tragic history. It is a country with a history of predominantly dictatorial rule.

I do not seek to make excuses for the events which transpired in Haiti in June, but I do think some analysis of the circumstances surrounding the elections will help to put the process in some perspective.

First and foremost, until 11 months ago the prospects of any election being held in Haiti were virtually zero. Only after President Clinton's courageous decision last October to return President Aristide to office did the possibility of elections become a real option.

The newly returned Aristide administration had enormous hurdles to overcome, just to deal with the day-to-day running of the government. It returned to Port-au-Prince to find government offices stripped bare--no typewriters, no paper, no pens, no desks, in some instances even toilets were gone. On top of that, the international community insisted that elections for more than 2000 parliamentary and municipal offices be held as quickly as possible. No small task in a country where one can count on one hand, perhaps on one finger, the number of Democratic elections that have occurred. Election preparations had to take place virtually from scratch. Voter registration had to be undertaken on a massive scale nationwide. An election commission had to be formed and thousands of citizens recruited to participate in getting the election organized.

It seems to me that on June 25, the Haitian people made it pretty clear that, despite all the warts associated with the days leading up to the election, they had enough faith in the process to turn out and vote in large numbers. So did the vast majority of Haiti's political parties--left, right, and center--who chose to have their candidates appear on the ballot. When election day dawned--the people of Haiti came out to participate. They came from miles away. They stood in line, sometimes for hours in the hot sun. They exercised their constitutional right to cast their ballots and to choose the individuals who would represent them in their national and local governmental structures. That to me says a great deal about the validity of the process.