THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409190072
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 157 lines
Former President Jimmy Carter won an agreement from Haiti's military dictators to step down, averting a U.S. military invasion that was already under way Sunday night.
``The dictators have recognized that it is in their best interest and the best interests of the Haitian people for them to step down peacefully,'' President Clinton said in a televised address.
``From the beginning, I have said the Haitian dictators must go. And tonight I can say that they will go,'' he said.
Clinton said the accord came only after 61 planes with Army 82nd Airborne paratroopers had been airborne to begin an invasion to restore democracy to the Caribbean nation. The troops were recalled to Fort Bragg, N.C.
Under the agreement brokered by Carter, 15,000 U.S. peacekeeping troops will begin entering Haiti this morning.
Clinton said the peacekeeping effort would be less dangerous but warned that the mission still had its risks. ``Haiti is a violent country,'' he explained.
Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and two other military leaders said they would step down after the Haitian parliament passed legislation granting them amnesty. If the parliament fails to act, the dictators agreed to step down no later than Oct. 15.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher said the agreement on the ``fail safe'' departure date was the crucial element of the agreement.
Exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, will return to the island nation after the dictators step down, Clinton said. The president reminded his audience of Aristide's promise that there would be ``no vengeance, no violence'' when he returns.
While Cedras and the others made no specific promise to leave Haiti, Christopher said they were expected to depart after resigning their posts.
Cedras and his lieutenants did not sign the departure agreement until he learned that 61 planes were in the air carrying advance elements of the U.S. invasion force, Clinton noted.
It was not immediately clear how Cedras learned of the unfolding attack.
``It is clear that this agreement only came because of the credible and imminent threat of military force,'' Clinton said.
The Norfolk-based Mount Whitney, which was the command ship of the operation and is carrying more than 1,000 crew members, was just miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, and had been shadowing its shores all afternoon.
A task force of some 37 ships, including two aircraft carriers and more than 200 aircraft, were preparing to land more than 7,000 troops ashore.
Army Lt. Gen. Henry H. Shelton, commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps and in charge of Task Force 180, said he felt relief at not having to make a forced entry into Haiti. But he also said he knows that those who worked long and hard on the operation felt some disappointment.
``I feel very good from the standpoint that we may be able to reach an agreement and accomplish our original objective,'' said Shelton, just minutes before Clinton announced that the invasion had been called off.
``I feel relief we don't have to put anybody in harm's way.''
The American peacekeepers will work in cooperation with the Haitian army, which is still under Cedras' control, Clinton said. That fact is certain to stir controversy among the president's critics.
Clinton praised the efforts of Carter and the other members of his negotiating team - Sam Nunn (the Democratic senator from Georgia) and Colin Powell (former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).
``They have worked tirelessly, almost around the clock,'' Clinton noted.
The talks dragged on through more than 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday without a clear resolution in sight before the dramatic evening conclusion.
Plans call for the U.S. troops to enter Haiti initially to maintain order, officials said. After several months, that task would be turned over to a 6,000-member United Nations peacekeeping force - including 3,000 U.S. troops.
While peacekeeping would be expected to be less risky than invading, top officials conceded that U.S. troops will be in danger as long as they are in Haiti, where bloody factional violence is a way of life.
``We have to be prepared for violence, Haitian-on-Haitian violence,'' acknowledged Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on NBC-TV's ``Meet the Press.''
``We have to be prepared for hit-and-run sorts of operations,'' Shalikashvili said, terming those dangers ``a very difficult but real problem that we will be facing.''
Plans call for Haiti's new government under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to quickly assemble a new police force of up to 3,000 Haitians.
Up to 600 experienced U.S. military police officers are to train them to serve as the front line in maintaining civil order, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said on CBS-TV's ``Face the Nation.''
But Defense Secretary William Perry noted that it will take ``a few months before we can have confidence'' that the new Haitian police force can enforce law and order, so U.S. troops will be needed to back them up initially.
During that time, U.S. troops will intervene in domestic Haitian conflict if needed to quell dangerous instability, Shalikashvili said. They will be authorized to shoot Haitian civilians if necessary.
All outside forces are expected to be withdrawn by March 1996, following a presidential election in December 1995 and the subsequent inauguration of a new democratically elected Haitian leader.
Prominent critics - both Democrat and Republican - denounced Clinton earlier Sunday for getting the United States into the Haitian crisis.
Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and often a key Clinton ally, blasted the president's commitment to invade Haiti as a violation of his constitutional oath of office and of international law.
Like many Republican critics, Moynihan said Clinton got himself into this trap by shortsighted political promises to domestic supporters rather than by a careful calculation of U.S. foreign policy.
Haiti is ``distant from the concerns of the American people,'' Moynihan said on ABC-TV's ``This Week,'' but the uproar over it will end whatever small chance remained that Congress might act on health care reform this year.
Moynihan - a former U.N. ambassador who once served as president of its Security Council - emphasized that Clinton's commitment to invade Haiti if necessary violates U.S. treaty commitments in the charters of both the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
That means Clinton is poised to violate his constitutional oath of office, Moynihan concluded.
Asked what Clinton should do, Moynihan replied: ``Pray that Jimmy Carter can save us . . . I'll give him (Carter) five Nobel Prizes if he can come back with a settlement this afternoon.''
Two top foreign-policy officials from the Bush administration were equally harsh.
Haiti should be no more than a ``low priority'' for America, insisted Former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney, because ``it is not a significant part of the world. . . . ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCAITED PRESS
Haitians shout from the street in front of the Presidential Palace
in Port-au-Prince as Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras leaves his final meeting
with former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday.
Lt. Gen Raoul Cedras and two other leaders will step down.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide will assume presidency.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A car carrying retired Gen. Colin Powell and former President Carter
makes its way through a crowd of protesters en route to a meeting
with Haitian military leaders Sunday.
MISSION HAD BEGUN
Graphic
STAFF [Map]
Dozens of C-130 transport planes had already left Pope Air Force
Base enroute to Haiti when the settlement was reached.
THE AGREEMENT
Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and two other Haitian military leaders said
they would step down after the Haitian parliament grants them
amnesty.
If the parliament fails to act by Oct. 15, Cedras will step
down.
Exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will return after the
dictators step down.
15,000 U.S. peacekeepers will go ashore in Haiti on today.
The military leaders are not required to leave the country.
The United States will try to lift the economic boycott.
KEYWORDS: HAITI by CNB