Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993 TAG: 9310130162
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI LENGTH: Medium
The aborted troop deployment threatened to wreck international efforts to prepare for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Oct. 30.
The National Coalition, a rightist military-backed group, declared Tuesday a "day of indignation," stopping buses to keep children out of school and urging their army to resist an "invasion."
The USS Harlan County pulled anchor just minutes after the Pentagon ordered it to withdraw to international waters.
Among the 200 to 300 people cheering the ship's retreat was a senior aide to army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who ousted Aristide in 1991.
Although only a minority of Haitians opposes Aristide's return, military-supported violence has hindered the transition government installed under the U.N. plan to restore democracy.
Some opponents of democracy have waved the flag of nationalism in their opposition to a U.S. military presence. Haitians have bitter memories of a 19-year U.S. Marine occupation that ended in 1934.
In Washington, President Clinton said he thought the U.N.-brokered agreement to restore democracy "will come back to life, but right now it has been abrogated."
Clinton called for the immediate reinstatement of U.N. economic sanctions against Haiti.
Aristide, meeting with U.S. lawmakers in Washington, said he was confident that international pressure would force the military regime to step down on Friday, as scheduled.
The Harlan County, carrying 472 servicemen from the United States and Canada, had floated 800 yards offshore since Monday, when military-backed port authorities, in a direct challenge to the U.N. mission, refused it a berth.
The deployment of U.S. soldiers marked the beginning in earnest of the U.N. mission. About 100 U.N. personnel, including 46 Americans, arrived earlier as an advance operation.
The withdrawal followed anti-U.N. demonstrations, rampages by a small mob of army-backed gunmen threatening to create another Somalia if the United States helped Aristide return.
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said Cedras, in a meeting, refused to guarantee the safety of the troops aboard the Harlan County. Cedras also refused to resign by Friday, despite insistence by U.N. officials that he had earlier agreed to do so.
Graham, D-Fla., told reporters that Haitian resistance has put the U.N. plan "into doubt."
The port incident Monday was the first indication of serious resistance to the U.N. mission, a spokesman for the U.N. force, Army Maj. Jim Hinnant, said.
Since then, "everything has come to a severe slowdown," Hinnant said from a suburban Petionville hotel. "Certain doors are not being opened. Calls are not being responded to."
Hinnant is part of the advance team that was supposed to grow to include 700 U.S. troops by month's end.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB