
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993                   TAG: 9306150169
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MIAMI                                LENGTH: Short

`HIV CAMP' REFUGEES FREED

Twelve-year-old James Dieudonne is eager to go to school. He has just spent 14 months in a place where he had nothing to do - a squalid U.S. detention center in Cuba criticized as "an HIV prison camp."

On Monday, he was one of 27 Haitian political refugees, including six children, who flew to freedom as the camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base began shutting down. Most of the adults carry HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

James, speaking before he boarded the Air Force C-130 that carried the first group of refugees to Miami, said he wants to go to school now.

His first priority, though, is "to learn to play basketball."

His favorite player? "Magic Johnson."

After arriving in Miami, MarieRosita Joseph, 19, described horrendous conditions at the dusty, razor-wire-encircled camp.

"I was living in a cell with bugs and rats," she told reporters as the van carrying her drove into the U.S. Catholic Conference center in Miami.

"Now I'm very happy. I feel like a newborn child. . . . I feel God came down to rescue me."

The 113 others still at Guantanamo will be flown to the United States over the next 10 days, federal officials said.

Some officials, including 40 congressmen, have questioned the wisdom of accepting the HIV-infected immigrants.

"It is my belief that this action threatens Florida with a financial disaster," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said Monday. "This action could also be a medical disaster for this country."

by CNB