
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 16, 1993                   TAG: 9310160142
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

SHIPS SENT TO HAITI BLOCKADE PLANNED; U.N. STAFF LEAVES

President Clinton sent six warships to the waters off Haiti to enforce trade sanctions Friday, asserting vital U.S. interests were at stake in restoring democracy to the violence-torn Caribbean nation.

As part of a show of force to apply pressure on Haiti's defiant military and police leaders, Clinton also announced new U.S. financial sanctions and said he had ordered an infantry company on standby at nearby Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Clinton's moves drew a negative reaction from Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, who told an audience in Phoenix, "I don't quite understand why it's necessary to send U.S. warships. . . . If they don't want us in Haiti, then let's stay out."

Dole said he would offer an amendment Monday to the defense spending bill to make sure Clinton "can't do anything [involving Haiti] without prior approval of Congress." Earlier this week, Dole had promised to offer legislation barring Clinton from sending troops to Haiti without prior approval. Dole did not make clear Friday whether his legislation also would be designed to end any blockade.

The infantry unit would be used if needed to protect about 1,000 Americans still in Haiti, Clinton said.

"I am very concerned about the security and safety of Americans there," he told a news conference a day after the assassination of Haiti's justice minister.

Beyond that concern, he asserted a broader U.S. "interest in promoting democracy in this hemisphere, especially in a place where such a large number of Haitians have clearly expressed their preference for president."

The steps - enforcing U.N. sanctions due to take effect on Monday - were an attempt to break resistance to a plan to return exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power by Oct. 30.

That plan appeared to be unraveling even as Clinton was announcing the new sanctions and what amounts to a naval blockade. Haiti's army chief showed no signs of stepping down as promised, and the United Nations began evacuating 300 employees and rights monitors to the neighboring Dominican Republic for their safety. U.N. envoy Dante Caputo remained in Port-au-Prince with a skeleton staff.

Clinton denounced the gunning down of Haiti's justice minister, Guy Malary, on Thursday and called it part of a recent pattern "to thwart the desire of the Haitian people for democracy."

Malary was a member of the transition government of Prime Minister Robert Malval that was paving the way for Aristide's return.

The United States sought the permission of the U.N. Security Council to monitor ships at sea to make sure they don't bring contraband oil and guns and other materials to Haiti's military rulers.

But Clinton didn't wait for a Security Council vote to order out the warships. He said the first one would arrive within an hour of his announcement and that all six would be in place by today.

"The military authorities in Haiti simply must understand that they cannot indefinitely defy the desires of their own people as well as the will of the world community," Clinton said.

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