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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. TO HAITIAN REGIME: STEP DOWN OR FACE INVASION

The United States warned Haiti's military leaders Wednesday that if they do not leave the Caribbean republic soon they will be arrested by a U.S.-led invasion force and handed over to a new civilian government for trial and punishment.

Increasing the rhetorical pressure on Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and his cohorts in the Haitian armed forces to surrender power, two senior U.S. officials said that the force being assembled to restore democracy in Haiti will go there very soon, even if the Haitian military tries to resist. The officials did not set a deadline.

``If General Cedras and his colleagues are still in Port-au-Prince when the multinational force goes in, I think it is a dead certainty that they would be apprehended and, in due course, turned over to the legitimate government of Haiti,'' Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said at a news conference.

Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch, who appeared with Talbott, said the Haitian military and its civilian backers are making a great mistake if they believe that the U.N.-sanctioned force will not go into Haiti in the near future.

``The multinational force is going to Haiti,'' Deutch said. ``The issue is the circumstances under which that force enters Haiti. It could be under permissive circumstances at the request of the legitimate government, or it can be under contested circumstances if the illegal government does not come to its senses and realize that the world is determined to see a change back to the democratically elected government.''

The intervention, which will involve 10,000 or more largely U.S. troops, is designed to have ``overwhelming force,'' Deutch said, in order to overcome potential resistance quickly and keep casualties to a minimum. But, he added, the best outcome would be for the military to step aside so that the multinational force can restore democracy quickly and give way to U.N. peacekeeping units.

Talbott and Deutch spoke with reporters a few hours after returning from Kingston, Jamaica, where four Caribbean countries - Jamaica, Barbados, Belize and Trinidad - agreed to contribute 266 support personnel to the intervention force. Three other regional nations - Antigua, Bahamas and Guyana - also are considering token contributions of men from their security forces.

The Clinton administration's proclaimed determination to oust the military dictatorship that took power in a 1991 coup and to restore deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overshadowed during the past two weeks by the more immediate need to deal with the massive outflow of refugees from neighboring Cuba.

U.S. officials said that the Haitian military appeared to have read Washington's preoccupation with Cuba as a sign that invasion plans were put on the back burner.

As as result, the officials said, the administration decided to send an unmistakable signal that the president has not forgotten his pledge to restore Haitian democracy and will not wait much longer for Cedras to respond to diplomatic initiatives.

by CNB