Speech #980183698

As Secretary of State George Schultz recently said about proposed elections in Nicaragua: An election Just as an election does not really mean anything.... The important thing is that if there is to be an electoral process. it be observed not only at the moment when people vote. but in all the preliminary aspects that make an election really mean something. My colleagues and I on the Congressional Black Caucus Task Force on Haitian Refugees. commend for your attention this report on the February 1984 legislative elections in Haiti. We concur with the findings of this report that these elections were not meaningful according to the criteria articulated by Secretary of State Schultz. but were instead a mockery of the democratic process. This report was prepared for Americas Watch and the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights by Michael S. Hooper. Esq.. the executive director of the National Coalition of Haitian Refugees. This is Mr. Hoopers sixth human rights report on Haiti during the last 4 years.