THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 30, 1995 TAG: 9511300411
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
The tide of U.S.-bound Haitian refugees, which stemmed last year when American troops landed, appears to be surging again just weeks before a crucial election and three months before U.N. peacekeepers are scheduled to leave.
The U.S. Coast Guard has picked up more than 1,100 boat people in the past two weeks, surpassing the total for the previous 10 months combined. No one expects the departures to stop as long as political and economic uncertainty prevails in Haiti.
All of those stopped at sea have been, or will be, sent back to Haiti, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
``Life was mistreating me. Misery was in my bones,'' said Jackson Dorelus, a 15-year-old orphan who was among 577 refugees returned Wednesday by two Coast Guard cutters.
His tone did not reflect the hope in a message on his T-shirt - ``Operation Uphold Democracy'' - a reference to the U.S. mission that restored then-exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994.
The discovery of 516 Haitians aboard one freighter Friday and 578 on another Sunday represented the two largest single intercepts of Haitian migrants by the Coast Guard since 1981, officials said.
``If this keeps on, it will become an issue, as it was in 1994,'' said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stan Schrager.
That summer, the refugee surge peaked as an estimated 21,000 Haitians were turned away from U.S. shores in less than a month. They braved the passage on makeshift rafts and leaky sailboats, desperate to flee a military regime responsible for killingof 4,000 civilians.
In September 1994, President Clinton sent troops to Haiti with the twin objectives of stopping the killing and halting the exodus. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and The
Washington Post.
by CNB