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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994                   TAG: 9405220069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI                                LENGTH: Medium

WORLD SHUNS HAITI

The clock gave them several more hours, but for many Haitians, time had already run out.

A worldwide trade embargo was scheduled to go into effect at midnight Saturday to punish Haiti's military rulers for not reinstating the ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The United Nations gave the go-ahead for the ban to begin, and business owners shipped out the last of their wares Saturday as the countdown wound down.

For many Haitians, it became a question of where their next meal would come from.

"We're all going to die now," grumbled Francois De Ravine, 28, as he stood with other truckers in the rain Friday at the entrance to the American Airlines freight terminal as the last boxes were unloaded from their trucks.

"We're all going to die hungry. I have five people I have to feed. Now the only thing I can do is cry."

The new sanctions would place a trade ban on all but food, humanitarian supplies and medicine. It stiffens a fuel and arms embargo that went into effect in October after military rulers reneged on an agreement to step down.

Other sanctions that took effect May 6 include a ban on all foreign travel by 600 military and police officers and their families, a freeze on their foreign assets, and a ban on all non-commercial passenger flights to and from Haiti - intended to stem alleged drug trafficking by the country's military rulers.

U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali cleared the way for the tighter trade ban by declaring Friday that Haiti's military rulers have not complied with U.N. demands to restore Aristide, who was toppled in a 1991 coup.

President Clinton, meanwhile, signed an executive order to carry out U.S. participation in the trade embargo. His order bars the importation into the United States of any goods or services originating in Haiti other than material "needed for the free flow of information."

The order also forbids Americans from selling goods to Haiti or businesses in Haiti and bans the use of "U.S. registered vessels or aircraft" in any commerce with Haiti.

Near the international airport Saturday, all the air freight terminals were closed.

"What can you do? No import, no export - there's no need to operate," said Paul Peters, executive director of Papair, a local air freight company, as he prepared to shut down Friday.

by CNB