The president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti, CCIH, also condemns the attitude of this group of US congressmen who demanded the dismissal of Haitian Justice Minister Bernard Gousse. Dr. Reginald Boulos hopes, however, that the government will make changes to the security team. CCIH President Boulos speaks as follows:
I want to comment on two things. First, this is an unacceptable and unprecedented action that does not have any power at all in our country. I do not know of any country in the world where foreign congressmen have ordered the dismissal of a government minister. Do you think that we here could ask President George Bush to fire his justice minister or to order the release of Saddam Husayn? This is absolutely unacceptable.
But we must not let this intrusion make us forget about this serious security problem that we have and for which the justice and security officials have a major responsibility. So, I believe that it is necessary for changes to be made in the security team, and we should not let this request put forward by these US congressmen change our plans if plans were already made.
On the one hand, we affirm that we are not going to act upon what these congressmen said. But, on the other hand, we are going to act upon what the security and judicial situations in this country command us to do in view of the establishment of a peaceful climate, but not in accordance with the request made by these congressmen. What is going to be done will have nothing to do with a request for the release of Yvon Neptune, who was accused of a crime in the La Scierie case and for which only the court can give a verdict.