Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In the latest shift in policy, the administration said it wanted to halt a surge of fleeing boat people. The announcement came a day after more than 3,000 Haitians were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard.
And in a new show of military force, the administration ordered four more warships and 2,000 Marines to sail toward Haiti and prepare for a potential evacuation of U.S. citizens.
``Those who are not political refugees will be returned,'' said William Gray, President Clinton's special adviser on Haiti. ``Those who are refugees will be given safe haven - those that are picked up on the sea - in Panama.''
Gray said Haitians who apply at U.S. offices inside Haiti will be allowed to come to the United States if they are granted refugee status based on a well-founded fear of persecution.
In an earlier change of a policy that he had adopted from the previous administration, Clinton announced on May 8 that Haitians with a well-founded fear of persecution would be allowed to come to the United States to pursue their asylum claims or go to a third country.
But a surge in refugees turned into a tidal wave Monday, with the U.S. Coast Guard intercepting 3,247 Haitians in 70 boats, doubling the previous single-day high set in May 1992. More than 150 Haitians died when a boat capsized. Nearly 700 had been picked up by midday Tuesday and hundreds more were expected, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
The flow has surged as the Clinton administration has tightened economic sanctions against Haiti in an effort to force out the military leaders who ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in September 1991.
Gray said the first safe haven site would be in Panama and that agreement in principle also had been reached with the Caribbean nations of Dominica and Antigua. He said the agreement with Panama was for six months.
In Barbados, Antigua Prime Minister Lester Bird said Tuesday his country will allow the United States to process 2,000 Haitians over six months. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will operate the center, he said.
Gray noted that any ``safe haven'' will be temporary, and that the Haitians will be repatriated when the crisis in their country is over.
Asked about the possibility of an invasion of Haiti, Gray said, ``There is no military invasion imminent.'' He defined imminent as the next several days.
Nevertheless, he said that a military option ``is on the table,'' and that the administration is ``looking at that situation as it deteriorates.''
Gray said the sudden deployment of the warships was necessary because of ``an increasing deterioration'' in the situation in Haiti ``that potentially poses a threat to the safety of Americans.''
Gray made the announcement after Clinton discussed Haiti on Tuesday morning with his top foreign policy advisers, including Defense Secretary William Perry and Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Perry visited Panama last month.
Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx said the new deployment will bring the number of U.S. warships in the region to about a dozen and would enable the military force ``to deal with any contingency.''
The 2,000 Marines on board the four ships are specially trained to conduct emergency evacuations under hostile conditions.
The sailors and warships headed for Haiti had returned to the United States on June 24, having just completed a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea off Yugoslavia and in the waters off Somalia.
Gray argued that the new safe haven policy was a continuation of Clinton's May 8 announcement that Haitian boat people would no longer be forcibly repatriated to Haiti.
by CNB