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

DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993                   TAG: 9310240054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI                                LENGTH: Medium

HAITIANS TALKING TO U.N.

U.N. officials late Saturday said they were in contact with a group opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and examining what could signify "positive steps" toward restoring Aristide to power.

A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, briefed reporters and said a formal announcement would be made later.

Under a U.N.-brokered agreement, Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, was to have returned Oct. 30 as the culmination of Haiti's return to democracy. But resistance by the country's military leaders has caused the plan to disintegrate.

U.N. envoy Dante Caputo offered to begin new negotiations to find a compromise within the framework of the U.N. plan. But Caputo said he would not deal directly with army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who U.N. officials say overstayed an Oct. 15 deadline to quit.

Diplomatic activity Saturday night followed a meeting between Cedras and Aristide's prime minister, Robert Malval, at Malval's heavily guarded private residence.

It was believed that the plan would involve a strategy to get an amnesty law through parliament. Under the U.N. plan, parliament must approve a law separating the army and police, and U.S. diplomats were urging Aristide's camp to propose a general amnesty law.

Aristide had already decreed an amnesty, but Cedras has said it could be withdrawn at any time. Cedras had requested an amnesty law.

Once parliamentary action is complete, police chief Joseph Michel Francois must leave his post and Cedras must quit. The final stage of the plan would be the return of Aristide, following 25 months in exile.

It was not known if Saturday night's initiative would enable Aristide to return by the Oct. 30 deadline.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager said it would take "miracles" for Aristide to be able to return and regain the office from which the military ousted him in September 1991.

To make matters worse for impoverished and frightened Haitians, a gasoline shortage resulting from a U.N. embargo is likely to become widely felt at the same time Aristide is scheduled to return.

Keywords:
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by CNB