Safety and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Hearing
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SAFETY AND SECURITY OF PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MARCH 24, 2004 Serial No. 108–102 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 92–743PDF WASHINGTON : 2004 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Mar 21 2002 10:27 Jul 13, 2004 Jkt 092188 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\FULL\032404\92743.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska HOWARD L. BERMAN, California CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York Vice Chairman ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa ELTON GALLEGLY, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD SHERMAN, California EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ROBERT WEXLER, Florida PETER T. KING, New York ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York STEVE CHABOT, Ohio WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts AMO HOUGHTON, New York GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York BARBARA LEE, California ROY BLUNT, Missouri JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania RON PAUL, Texas EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon NICK SMITH, Michigan SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California JEFF FLAKE, Arizona ADAM B. SCHIFF, California JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia DIANE E. WATSON, California MARK GREEN, Wisconsin ADAM SMITH, Washington JERRY WELLER, Illinois BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota MIKE PENCE, Indiana CHRIS BELL, Texas THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director PETER D.R. SMITH, Professional Staff Member LIBERTY DUNN, Staff Associate (II) VerDate Mar 21 2002 10:27 Jul 13, 2004 Jkt 092188 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\032404\92743.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Gaddi H. Vasquez, Director, The Peace Corps ............................ 10 Walter R. Poirier ...................................................................................................... 20 Jeffrey Bruce, Editor, Dayton Daily News ............................................................. 31 Jess Ford, Director, International Affairs and Trade, U.S. General Accounting Office ..................................................................................................................... 35 Kevin F.F. Quigley, President, National Peace Corps Association ...................... 43 The Honorable Charles D. Smith, Inspector General, The Peace Corps ............. 49 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Tom Lantos, a Representative in Congress from the State of California: Material submitted for the record ............................................... 6 The Honorable Gaddi H. Vasquez: Prepared statement ...................................... 12 Walter R. Poirier: GAO Report 01–970R, dated July 20, 2001, submitted for the record ........................................................................................................ 23 Prepared statement .............................................................................................. 29 Jeffrey Bruce: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 33 Jess Ford: Prepared statement ............................................................................... 37 Kevin F.F. Quigley: Prepared statement ............................................................... 45 The Honorable Charles D. Smith: Prepared statement ........................................ 51 APPENDIX The Honorable Tom Lantos: Prepared statement on H.R. 4060, the Health Safety, and Security of Peace Corps Volunteer Act of 2004 ............................. 63 The Honorable Nick Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 64 The Honorable Earl Blumenauer, a Representative in Congress from the State of Oregon: Prepared statement ................................................................. 64 The Honorable Gaddi H. Vasquez: Responses to questions submitted for the record by the Committee on International Relations and additional mate- rials submitted for the record ............................................................................. 65 (III) VerDate Mar 21 2002 10:27 Jul 13, 2004 Jkt 092188 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\032404\92743.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL VerDate Mar 21 2002 10:27 Jul 13, 2004 Jkt 092188 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\032404\92743.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL SAFETY AND SECURITY OF PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2004 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:36 a.m. in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry J. Hyde (Chair- man of the Committee) presiding. Chairman HYDE. The Committee will come to order. Good morn- ing, and welcome to this morning’s hearing of the Committee on International Relations. The purpose of today’s hearing is to examine the safety and secu- rity practices of the Peace Corps. The Members of this Committee drafted a Peace Corps bill last year that authorizes the doubling of the Peace Corps. That measure was included in H.R. 1950, which passed the House by a vote of 382 to 42 in July 2003. Next week, the Committee will consider additional legislation intended to improve the security and safety of our Peace Corps Volunteers. Today, we are going to hear from a distinguished group of wit- nesses each with firsthand experience in matters of safety and se- curity of Peace Corps Volunteers. We come here as supporters of the Peace Corps, admirers of their sacrifice and of the important work they do. It is for that reason that today we wish to inquire into the adequacy of safety and secu- rity practices that will govern their assignment in dangerous places around the world. Instead of a lengthy opening statement, I would like to read for you brief excerpts from three important documents on this topic which we will explore and refer to throughout today’s hearing. The first excerpt is from a GAO, General Accounting Office, re- port on Peace Corps safety and security dated July 2002: ‘‘The Peace Corps is embarking on a major expansion of its volunteer work force during a time of heightened risk for Americans living abroad. Providing safety and security for its volunteers is the Peace Corps’ higher priority. Our review of the agency’s efforts to ensure compliance with its basic safety and security policies and guidelines show that there are cases of uneven implementation of key elements of the safety and se- curity framework that could pose risks to volunteers. These in- clude uneven performance in developing safe and secure hous- ing and worksites, responding to volunteer concerns and plan- ning for emergencies.’’ (1) VerDate Mar 21 2002 10:27 Jul 13, 2004 Jkt 092188 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\FULL\032404\92743.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL 2 The second excerpt is from a recent investigative series by the Dayton Daily News dated October 27, 2003: ‘‘Every minute of every day for more than 21⁄2 years now Walter and Sheila Poirier have lived with a grim reality. They may never know what happened to their son. ‘‘ ‘Our concentration is still on finding Walter,’ Sheila said. ‘He is probably not alive, but he may be.’ ‘‘Long ago, their grief turned to anger, and their anger is di- rected squarely at the Peace Corps. They believe the agency should have been watching more closely, and they are not alone. ‘‘ ‘We believe that the Peace Corps severely failed their peo- ple, their volunteers, and knowing what I know there is no way I would let my children volunteer for the Peace Corps un- less there was some immediate changes and serious changes in the Peace Corps,’ said the General Accounting Office’s Patrick Sullivan, who spent 23 years as a U.S. Secret Service agent. ‘There is no way I would put my children or recommend to anybody I know to put their loved ones in that situation.’ ‘‘Sullivan and John Cooney went to Bolivia on behalf of the GAO’s Office of Special Investigations to review the Peace Corps’ handling of the case.’’ The third excerpt is from the GAO report referenced in the pre- vious excerpt dated July 20, 2001. It reads as follows: ‘‘Both the Country Director and Deputy Country Director for the Peace Corps in Bolivia told us, the GAO, that the Associate Director was not keeping close enough contact with Mr. Poirier.’’ The report also states: ‘‘The Associate Director also said that he became so busy su- pervising the other volunteers that Mr. Poirier ‘dropped of my radar screen.’ He said he made no further attempt to contact Mr. Poirier.’’ The GAO report is summarized in the following statement, and I quote: ‘‘The Peace Corps failed to properly supervise Mr. Poirier and lost track of him.’’ The purpose of