THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                         (Camp David, Maryland)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                      July 12, 2000

                  TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
                TO THE CHAIRMEN OF THE SENATE COMMITTEES
                ON FOREIGN RELATIONS AND APPROPRIATIONS
                      AND THE HOUSE COMMITTEES ON
               INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND APPROPRIATIONS

                             July 11, 2000

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Pursuant to section 559(b) of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2000 (Public Law 106-113), I hereby transmit to you a report concerning the status of Haiti's progress.

The report contains eight subsections, that provide information required by section 559(b) of the Act, to the extent that such information is available. These subsections address:

• Governmental Institutions Envisioned in the 1987 Haitian Constitution;
• Privatization of Haiti's Major Public Entities;
• Efforts to Re-sign the Lapsed Bilateral Repatriation Agreement, and Cooperation in Halting Illegal Migration;
• Investigations and Prosecution of Extrajudicial and Political Killings, and Cooperation with the United States in Such Investigation;
• Removal and Maintenance of Separation of Human Rights Violators from Haitian Public Security Entities or Units;
• Ratification of the 1997 Maritime Counter-Narcotics Agreement;
• Development of Haiti's Domestic Capacity to Conduct Free, Fair, Democratic, and Administratively Sound Elections; and
• Demonstrated Commitment of Haiti's Minister of Justice to the Professionalism of the Judiciary, and Progress Toward Judicial Branch Independence.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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