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

DATE: Wednesday, September 7, 1994           TAG: 9409070466
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   66 lines

REFUGEE ROCK ATTACK IS 2ND IN 3 DAYS THE CUBANS WERE ANGRY OVER BARBED WIRE PLACED NEAR A GUANTANAMO CAMP.

Cuban refugees camped on a former golf course at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station pelted American troops with rocks in a brief demonstration Tuesday afternoon, but there apparently were no serious injuries.

Navy Lt. Ernest Duplessis, a spokesman for the military task force caring for almost 40,000 Cuban and Haitian boat people confined on the base, said the Cubans involved in Tuesday's fracas were upset at the placement of a concertina wire fence between two camps on the golf course.

Duplessis said two Americans received minor injuries in the rock-throwing, the second such incident in three days at Guantanamo but the first involving Cuban refugees. One of the Americans was treated on the spot and returned to duty immediately; the other went to a field hospital briefly and will recuperate for a day or two in his quarters, Duplessis said. No Cubans were injured, he added.

Americans are using rolls of concertina wire to mark off boundaries between the camps, each of which has tents and other facilities for about 2,500 migrants. Duplessis said chaplains and community-relations workers were dispatched to the troubled camp to explain the rules and why the military wants the camps divided.

One Haitian migrant was seriously injured in a rock-throwing incident over the weekend. Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx on Tuesday attributed growing tension in the refugee camps to boredom and said the military is continuing efforts to find educational and recreational activities for the Cubans and Haitians.

While about 1,300 more Cubans were to arrive at Guantanamo by Tuesday night, not quite 100 left the base earlier in the day to take up residence in new camps the United States is constructing in Panama.

The military hopes to move about 150 Cubans per day to the Panama camps, which will have enough room for about 10,000 refugees. Boxx said negotiations are continuing on the possible placement of more camps for Haitians in Suriname.

Boxx said the military expects to spend about $38 million to set up the Panama camps and run them for six months. Earlier estimates have placed start-up costs at Guantanamo at $100 million, with a $20 million-per-month tab for operations.

The Clinton administration cut off Cuban immigration to the United States last month in an attempt to stop the surge of refugees who have gone to sea on rafts and in small boats to escape the island's communist regime. Boxx conceded Tuesday that the strategy has not worked but said the administration is hopeful that negotiations with the Cuban government will produce an agreement to stop the exodus of boats.

The United States reportedly has offered to dramatically increase legal immigration of Cubans if Fidel Castro's government will stop people from taking to the sea on their own. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

STAFF

CUBAWATCH Tuesday

SOURCE: U.S. Coast Guard, Defense Department, National Weather

Service

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

KEYWORDS: CUBA GUANTANAMO BAY REFUGEES by CNB