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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994                   TAG: 9404220192
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

6 CONGRESS MEMBERS ARRESTED

Six members of Congress protesting President Clinton's policy on Haiti were arrested in front of the White House Thursday, in the first of what they said will be a series of civil disobedience demonstrations.

The most dramatic expression of congressional opposition on Haiti to date came on a day that exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide denounced Clinton as uncaring about the impoverished island.

The House members arrested were Reps. Ron Dellums, D-Calif.; Joseph Kennedy, D-Mass.; Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.; Donald Payne, D-N.J.; Barbara-Rose Collins, D-Mich.; and Major Owens, D-N.Y.

They called for ``moral leadership'' from the Clinton administration, and urged a reversal of the policy to repatriate Haitian refugees who try to escape Haiti by boat, and a tightening of trade sanctions to pressure the Haitian military regime.

Dellums said the arrest for illegally demonstrating on the White House sidewalk was ``a symbolic act, but we do not take it frivolously.''

``Significant numbers of people have died in Haiti. More should not die because of lack of action by this country,'' he said.

U.S. Park Police handcuffed the House members with plastic bracelets, took them away in a police van and said they would be cited and released to appear later before a federal magistrate.

- Associated Press

by CNB