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

DATE: MONDAY, May 9, 1994                   TAG: 9405090098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HAITIAN POLICY ALTERED

President Clinton sought to assure Americans on Sunday that his new Haiti policy, designed to make it easier for political refugees to escape that poverty-stricken nation, won't lead to a tide of immigrants arriving on U.S. shores.

Formally announcing his new refugee policy in a White House Rose Garden news conference, Clinton also said that William Gray, president of the United Negro College Fund, will become his special adviser on Haiti.

Gray, a former Pennsylvania Democrat who quit Congress in 1990, will be an unpaid adviser. His appointment appears to give Clinton's new stance on Haiti more credibility with black leaders who had criticized his previous policy.

Clinton did not back away from his insistence that economic refugees won't be permitted in the United States and will continue be repatriated to Haiti, where they would face reprisals by the Haitian authorities.

"We aren't opening up the floodgates to refugees, but we are going to help people that are genuinely fearing for their lives," he said. "There will be more people processed, but we haven't broadened the criteria for entering the country."

Under the policy, the United States will set up immigration centers aboard ships anchored near Haiti, enabling political refugees fleeing on boats to be processed.

In the past, fleeing Haitians have been picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and returned to Haiti, where many have been picked up by Haitian authorities. Clinton told of an "alarming" amount of violence against repatriated refugees.

Clinton said he doesn't expect many more Haitians to flee on boats as a result of the U.S. policy change.

"It would be a great mistake for Haitians who want to come here for economic reasons . . . to take to the boats, because we are not changing the standard by which we admit people," he said.

In addition to processing centers on ships, which Clinton said will take "some weeks" to implement, the United States will set up a processing center in a third country to be named later. It also will increase humanitarian aid by an unspecified amount.

by CNB