Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9409200036
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The White House said the group, which leaves this morning, has a mandate to negotiate only the manner by which the three military leaders in charge of Haiti's de facto government will leave. The talks will neither be lengthy nor delay the timetable for U.S. military action, an administration official said.
Nunn is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Powell is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a potential 1996 Republican presidential candidate.
The mission was arranged after Haitian armed forces chief Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras indicated Friday to Carter that he would accept a meeting whose agenda was limited to discussing his departure, officials said. Carter had been having discussions with Cedras for several days.
The administration suggested adding Powell and Nunn to the delegation, and Cedras accepted.
Even should Cedras and the other two senior Haitian military officials accept Clinton's ultimatum that they leave ``immediately,'' a massive military landing by American forces still would occur. Officials have always said that essentially the same military forces would go into Haiti, to maintain order and help build a democratic environment, whether the leaders left or resisted.
If the military regime leaves voluntarily, an official said, ``There would be no one in charge of the government; in charge of civil order.'' He said that restoring exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide ``and maintaining civil order in the process of restoring democracy have always been the mission.''
National security adviser Anthony Lake made the announcement of the delegation at the White House as the final pieces of the military invasion force moved into place. Officials said all of it would be in readiness by Sunday, and they have strongly hinted military action would come by then or shortly afterward.
A senior administration official said the makeup of the delegation was meant to send a distinct set of signals to the nation.
``None of them has been supportive of a military action publicly. If these three get stiffed by Cedras, Americans are going to say the president gave it a good shot,'' said an official. ``Americans know Carter as a genuine peacemaker; they know Powell and Nunn are not going to get danced around there.''
The move also may blunt harsh criticism in Congress of the invasion plans. Even before the announcement was made, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kansas, and several other critics were calling on Clinton to send a high-level emissary. ``We should not shoot first and ask questions later,'' Dole said, recommending Powell as the emissary.
The surprise announcement came just a day after Clinton in a televised address told the Haitian rulers that their ``time is up'' and that the United States had ``exhausted diplomacy'' in its dealings with Cedras.
A senior administration official, briefing reporters after the announcement was made, said the discussions with the Haitian leadership would be about only ``the means of their departure.'' The opening of the talks did not indicate any backing off on Clinton's part, and did not change the military timetable by ``a second,'' the official said.
In Port-Au-Prince, the U.S. Embassy on Friday urged American residents of Haiti to observe a dusk-to-dawn curfew and stockpile food and water. The city showed increasing signs of nervousness over the invasion threat.
Haitians who could afford to do so flocked to grocery stores or outdoor markets to stock up on food, water and charcoal, and vendors of black-market gasoline seemed busier than usual.
Some information in this story came from the Boston Globe and The New York Times.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB