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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                    TAG: 9406170523 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940617                                 LENGTH: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

U.S. EMBASSY PERSONNEL FLY OUT OF HAITI

{LEAD} American employees and their wives, some with babies in their arms, left the U.S. Embassy bound for home Thursday before next week's cutoff of U.S. airline service to Haiti.

Marines loaded bags onto a bus in the driveway as Ambassador William Swing bade farewell to the dozen Americans at a brief ceremony on the steps of the seaside embassy.

{REST} Thursday's contingent was the first to leave since the State Department on June 10 authorized a reduction of embassy staff and advised all other Americans to get out of the country. The department set a Monday deadline for the staff to be reduced from 118 to 75 and for all 57 of their dependents to leave Haiti.

The private farewell ceremony inside embassy walls was calm and informal. No tears were shed.

``We hope to have you back here very shortly,'' Swing said. He said the decision to cut staff ``was driven largely by the air and financial sanctions'' and not by security worries.

Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager has called the repatriation a ``prudent move'' before flight service is stopped.

U.S. officials said there has been no organized harassment of Americans, but that Haitian soldiers are tensing up because of the sanctions and the possibility of an invasion, which has not been ruled out by President Clinton.

The United Nations imposed a total trade embargo May 21 in its efforts to force the military-imposed government to resign and restore democracy to Haiti.

Washington turned up the heat by ordering a June 25 halt to U.S. airline service and most financial transactions.

{KEYWORDS} HAITI by CNB