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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 1, 1993

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

On June 25, 1993 the President signed Presidential Determination No. 93-28 on the Haiti Reconstruction and Reconciliation Fund. The determination, signed after careful consultation with the relevant Committees of the Congress, waives legal restrictions on providing assistance to Haiti in order to provide it up to about $37.5 million from prior year Haiti Foreign Military Financing and Development Assistance Funds and from prior year Bolivia and Peru Economic Support and Foreign Military Funds.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who requested outside assistance including for military professionalization in a letter to the UN and OAS Secretaries General, has indicated his agreement with these broad objectives.

This assistance package is designed to support negotiations to restore democracy to Haiti and the implementation of a phased political solution. Disbursement will be carefully timed to support the negotiations and respond to concrete progress toward restoring democracy. The Department of State is notifying the relevant Committees of its intention to carry out the reprogrammings this Presidential Determination authorizes and will consult further with the Congress on the military assistance component of this assistance package.

Our current aid program in Haiti of $52 million consists solely of humanitarian assistance -- feeding and health activities -- funneled through non-governmental organizations. The new assistance package would provide continued support for the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission ($10 million), which monitors human rights in Haiti; economic support and stabilization once the democratic government of President Aristide is restored (up to about $12.7 million); the beginning of an administration of justice program to strengthen democratic institutions such as the Justice Ministry ($3 million) -- and including the creation and training of a new civilian police force ($4 million) -- as well as a modest, non-lethal military professionalization program to reduce its size and train it to address the needs of Haiti's society and missions set forth in Haiti's Constitution, particularly civic action, engineering, disaster relief and coastal patrol (about $2.1 million).

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