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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994                    TAG: 9406220452 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940622                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

NEW PROCESSING CENTER MAY REPLACE COMFORT

{LEAD} A processing center for Haitian refugees could be operating on Grand Turk Island by the end of July and would become the ``preferred site'' for considering their pleas for admission to the United States.

The announcement Tuesday by Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen Delaski left unclear the future role of the Comfort, a U.S. Navy hospital ship that last week began processing Haitian migrants from an anchorage just off Kingston, Jamaica. The ship's crew includes 47 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel from Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

{REST} Ninety-two Haitians picked up by the Coast Guard over the weekend and on Monday arrived on the Comfort on Tuesday for processing. Immigration and Naturalization Service workers are questioning the refugees, who are supposed to be admitted to America if they can convince the interviewers they have a ``well-founded fear'' of political repression should they return to Haiti.

In an initial group of 35 Haitians processed aboard the Comfort last week, only six were cleared for admission. They were flown to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba to await placement with American sponsors.

Delaski also announced Tuesday that the Clinton administration is considering setting up an airborne or shipboard radio station to broadcast messages into Haiti. The messages would be designed to build support for exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and to undermine the military junta that forced him from power in 1991.

The messages apparently also would be calculated to discourage Haitians from taking to the sea in an attempt to get to America. The administration is worried about a potential flood of refugees once Haitians understand that they no longer will be repatriated summarily when the Coast Guard intercepts them.

{KEYWORDS} HAITI REFUGEE

by CNB