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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 23, 1993                   TAG: 9310230200
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI                                LENGTH: Medium

BLOCKADE MAY WIDEN

As lines grew Friday outside the few gas stations that continued to operate, U.N. officials warned that unless the country's elected president was allowed to return by Oct. 30 the Security Council would make the blockade against Haiti total.

The warning came amid a growing power struggle between Haiti's military and the civilian government that centered on the nation's gas pumps.

By midafternoon, almost no stations were selling gasoline as the three international oil companies that distribute it obeyed a U.N. embargo. The sale of oil and arms is prohibited until Haiti's military leaders carry out a negotiated settlement of the nation's political crisis.

That agreement calls for the military leaders who overthrew Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to resign and for Aristide to return.

U.N. officials said Friday that if Aristide was not allowed to return on Oct. 30, the Security Council would move to expand its embargo into a blockade of all commerce.

They said the Security Council would block efforts by the military to negotiate a new settlement.

Because of refueling before the embargo, diplomats believe Haiti has eight to 10 weeks of oil supplies.

Sparking a more immediate gasoline crisis, however, the civilian government of Prime Minister Robert Malval has discouraged the oil companies that operate in Haiti from selling their fuel.

The measure is intended to force the country's military leaders to relinquish power as they agreed.

Diplomats and businessmen in Haiti said Friday that if the military did not seize gas supplies at stations around the country, most transportation would be frozen for lack of fuel by early next week.

"If there is no gas, then that stops everything," an aide to Malval said. "Most of all, it will freeze the army's system of repression."

A U.S. embassy spokesman, Stanley Schrager, said, "We are going to support the prime minister, obviously. Under the terms of the embargo, the oil companies, legally, cannot sell their stock."

by CNB