THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994                    TAG: 9406150467 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A14    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS 
DATELINE: 940615                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON 

OFFICIALS CAN'T AGREE ON COMFORT PUBLICITY\

{LEAD} A floating center to process Haitian refugees is almost ready to open - but U.S. officials don't want to tell any Haitians.

``We are trying to preclude a sudden mass exodus,'' a Pentagon official said, explaining that any official announcement might encourage more Haitians to try to leave their country.

{REST} The latest problem facing the Jamaican processing center on the hospital ship Comfort, now anchored off Kingston, was the sudden resignation of 14 people who had been hired to translate and help Haitians file their claims for asylum in the United States.

Another four of the 100 temporary employees hired to work on the Comfort were let go after chest X-rays revealed health problems, a Pentagon official said.

Some of the 14 who quit, citing boredom and unhappiness with their working conditions on the hospital ship, want to return to their homes in Haiti, said Ada Peralta, Miami representative of the International Organization for Migration, a nonprofit group helping with the processing.

``I got messages saying some of them want tickets to Port-au-Prince,'' Peralta said.

Referring to complaints of boredom aboard the 1,000-bed Comfort, a U.S. official said, ``Maybe they expected the name of the ship to describe the conditions, and they were disappointed.''

The refugee-processing program, dubbed Operation Sea Signal V, had not officially begun Tuesday, partly because U.S. officials couldn't agree on how to announce it.

Some want a public announcement, but others advocate a ``soft opening'' - that is, starting operations without a public statement that might cause a surge in refugees.

On Friday the Coast Guard stopped a 60-foot sailboat dangerously crowded with 396 Haitians, all of whom were returned to Haiti.

{KEYWORDS} HAITI USS COMFORT by CNB