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Exchange With Reporters on Haiti

May 03, 1994

Q. Mr. President, are you going to send military advisers to Haiti? What is our Haiti policy, and are you thinking about military action or advisers or trainers, sir?

The President. Right now, what we're doing is to put in place a stiffer sanctions policy, consistent with what President Aristide has been asking for some months now. And we want to have a better enforcement of the sanctions we have as well as the stiffer sanctions. And I don't think it's useful to rule out any option, and I'm not ruling out any option.

But to use a phrase the Vice President made famous in 1992, "It's time for them to go." I mean, the military leaders of Haiti have abused their authority. They have begun to clearly kill more innocent civilians, people not even directly involved in the political life of the country.

I think the United States and the world is outraged by it. And we've tried other initiatives, and they have not worked. We have done our best to work through this, and the things we have done have not worked. So we're now doing this sanctions regime, as recommended by President Aristide and others, but we're not ruling out anything.

NOTE: The exchange began at 10:15 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White House, prior to the President's departure for Atlanta, GA.

William J. Clinton, Exchange With Reporters on Haiti Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/219359

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