
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994                    TAG: 9406080598 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A1    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY DOYLE MCMANUS, LOS ANGELES TIMES 
DATELINE: 940608                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

IMMINENT HAITI INVASION RULED OUT \

{LEAD} The Clinton administration has decided against immediate military action in Haiti, hoping instead that stepped-up economic and political sanctions can drive the military regime from power, senior officials say.

After weeks of debate between White House aides seeking a quick solution to the Haitian impasse and a Pentagon wary of using force, the administration has settled on a series of diplomatic actions in hopes that the sanctions can be made effective, they said.

{REST} President Clinton may re-open the internal debate over military intervention if the sanctions fail, but he has set no deadline for that decision, the officials said.

Meanwhile, they said, the administration is trying to make the sanctions work - and seeking commitments for a multinational peacekeeping force of 2,000 to 4,000 troops to pacify Haiti, if the regime falls.

``We really do want to find a peaceful multilateral solution in Haiti,'' Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said after returning from a trip to Latin America that focused on efforts to tighten the sanctions.

Talbott, the administration's diplomatic point man on the issue, argued that new U.N.-sponsored sanctions can succeed in driving the Haitian military regime from power, despite the doubts of the policy's critics.

He said the administration has made progress in winning support from Latin American countries for the new sanctions, which include attempts to seal off Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic and to halt all commercial air traffic. And, he said, several countries have agreed to contribute to a new, more muscular U.N. peacekeeping force that would police the island once the military regime is toppled.

The main new sanctions against Haiti include a complete trade embargo, including efforts to stop smuggling across the nation's land border with the Dominican Republic; a ban on commercial air flights; a halt to financial transactions; a freeze on overseas financial assets of Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, Haiti's military ruler, and others in the regime; and cancellation of the entry visas of the rulers and their close relatives.

The Pentagon said it may also send a small number of U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic to maintain helicopters and other equipment for the trade embargo.

by CNB