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

DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993                   TAG: 9310310089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI                                LENGTH: Medium

FOES PRESS ARISTIDE TO QUIT

On the day President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was to return, the climax of a U.N. plan to restore democracy, his opponents were maneuvering to replace his government instead.

Twelve political parties and pressure groups said in a joint communique Saturday that if Aristide doesn't resign by 3 p.m. today, they will announce plans to replace him.

The United States and the United Nations have warned against such a move.

U.N. special envoy Dante Caputo said he expected some minor disturbances, but said any attempt by anti-Aristide elements to appoint a new government would not work.

"I would hope that common sense would prevail, and they [Aristide's opponents] would realize this is going nowhere," he told The Associated Press late Saturday.

The latest person to declare political ambitions was Claude Raymond, a former army commander under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

"The time has come for a burst of national effort" he declared over Radio Signal on Saturday.

Many Aristide supporters stayed in their homes or did not wish to discuss politics openly Saturday following a rash of anti-Aristide attacks.

The United States was one of the major forces behind the U.N.-brokered agreement that Aristide and military leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras signed in July, laying out the terms for Aristide to regain the office from which the military ousted him in September 1991.

Among other things, the agreement called for the appointment of a transitional government, for Cedras to step down and for Aristide to return from exile Oct. 30.

The process was effectively blocked from the beginning. An Aristide ally was named premier, but has been largely powerless.

Then Cedras refused to step down. A U.S. warship that was carrying troops for an international force to aid the transition turned back in the face of an unruly mob at the capital's port.

The United Nations imposed an oil embargo on Oct. 18, but although the ensuing fuel shortages have increased the misery in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, it has not been enough to break the impasse.

A previous oil embargo was seen as inducing Cedras to sign the agreement with Aristide.

Among the groups demanding Aristide's resignation was the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, a military-backed political movement that has used intimidation to shut down the city this month.

Keywords:
INFOLINE

by CNB