Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 17, 1993 TAG: 9306170137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS LENGTH: Medium
The resolution greatly increases the economic sanctions on Haiti, beginning June 23, unless the Caribbean nation's first democratically elected president is reinstated.
Under the resolution, Haiti's financial assets would be frozen worldwide and shipments of weapons, oil, gasoline and other fuel would be blocked on the seas or overland from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
Canada has already offered warships to help enforce such a blockade.
But Haitian Ambassador Fritz Longchamp, who supports Aristide, said he believed the military regime would be so shaken by the vote that political changes would occur within days, making enforcement of a blockade unnecessary.
The Haitian army and elite are hostile to Aristide - a radical Roman Catholic priest popular among the poor - and have resisted pressure to accept his return. Hundreds of people were killed in the coup that ousted Aristide.
The council's resolution essentially takes the 34-nation Organization of American States' embargo on trade and oil shipments to Haiti and extends it worldwide, as well as adding the arms embargo and the freeze of assets.
The OAS embargo, adopted shortly after Aristide's ouster in the September 1991 coup, has not been enforced by a blockade.
Haiti's de facto military rulers have thwarted the OAS embargo by buying oil on the spot market in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Haiti usually has about six weeks of fuel reserves, though diplomatic sources in Port-au-Prince say the military has stockpiled several months' worth of fuel.
Two weeks ago, the Clinton administration revoked the visas and froze the assets of leading Haitian officials, though several wealthy supporters of the coup were not on the list. Clinton acted after Haiti's army rejected a U.N. plan to send 500 police monitors to Haiti, a step toward the reinstatement of Aristide.
Haiti's U.N. Mission, which is loyal to Aristide, sent the Security Council a letter last week supporting the proposed new sanctions.
One Haitian political leader, however, criticized the council's resolution, saying that the world body was rejecting the Haitian Parliament's efforts to settle the crisis.
The Parliament, dominated by anti-Aristide lawmakers, on Tuesday voted to recognize Aristide's legitimacy and allow him to appoint a new government. But it set conditions that Aristide has already rejected.
"We have shown our good faith, but we have not been understood. Imposed solutions are never viable. What more do they want? It is discouraging," said Serges Gilles, head of the National Progressive Revolutionary Party.
by CNB