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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 28, 1994                   TAG: 9407280094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, HAITI                                 LENGTH: Short

U.S. ASKS TO PATROL BORDER

In daylight, the road leading from Haiti's capital to its only international border is nearly empty.

After nightfall, however, trucks rumble along the two-lane blacktop, carrying gasoline and other contraband barred by the international trade embargo that has cut most air and sea traffic to Haiti, residents say.

The United States, in an effort to stop the overland route, wants to patrol the Dominican Republic side of the border with military helicopters. At stake is the success of the embargo, and perhaps whether President Clinton orders an invasion of Haiti.

Clinton has said invasion is an option if the embargo fails to force Haiti's military to resign and allow the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted in a 1991 coup. Clinton has backed up his threat by sending 2,800 Marines aboard a fleet of warships to waters off Haiti.

U.S. military brass met with officials in the Dominican Republic last week to set up the surveillance operation on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. But no agreement to allow the deployment has been signed between the United States and the Dominican Republic, U.S. diplomats said.

Dominican President Joaquin Balauger, who has close ties with Haiti's military and business elite, never has supported sanctions, but has promised to enforce them. Balauger and most other Dominicans fear they risk a wave of Haitians crossing the border in search of food and work if the embargo is fully implemented.

by CNB