Haitian Premier Says Foes Are Out of Options : Caribbean: He says military leaders face catastrophe if they obstruct President Aristide’s return.

Military leaders here have been told that they have no option but to give up power and restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide or face “catastrophe,” including renewed international economic sanctions, pro-Aristide Prime Minister Robert Malval said Sunday.

Taking an unusually aggressive tone, Malval told two American reporters that army commander Raoul Cedras and his allies have violated an agreement he signed in July that calls for Cedras’ resignation and Aristide’s return on Oct. 30.

“I’m sick and tired of it,” the usually moderate, soft-spoken prime minister said of the attitude and tactics used by Cedras in questioning the sincerity and objectives of Aristide forces. Malval said that, despite his government’s effort to live up to the July 3 accord reached in New York, “we get nothing in return. Words, words, words, but no deeds.”

The agreement, signed by both Cedras and Aristide, called for the army commander to resign in exchange for amnesty, the appointment of a pro-Aristide prime minister (Malval), the naming of a new commander in chief and Aristide’s restoration to power after two years of exile that followed a Sept. 30, 1991, coup. It also called for the military to put an end to human rights violations and to allow Malval to control all government ministries and functions.

“If anything, human rights violations were worse after New York,” Malval said, adding that the military still is not permitting his government to fully function.

“They are still a step behind their commitments,” he said.

It also has been understood that most of Cedras’ fellow senior officers will be removed and that Michel-Joseph Francois--the Port-au-Prince police chief, a prime coup leader and one of the strongest opponents to Aristide’s return--will be reassigned outside the country.

Francois has flatly rejected these understandings, thus far, while Cedras has equivocated and accused Aristide and the international community of violating the accord.

Although most diplomats and Haitian political experts say the two are resisting mostly to cling to the power and financial benefits they and their allies have accumulated, their stated reasons are that Aristide has not provided a sufficient guarantee of amnesty or a government of true national reconciliation.

Malval said Sunday that Aristide will issue an amnesty decree within a week, and “it will be broader than they (Cedras and Francois) can even expect.”

But the way Haitian sources outlined the upcoming decree is likely to cause serious problems for Cedras, who has demanded a total amnesty for all crimes, including murder, committed from the day of the coup until Aristide’s return.

The description of the decree fell far short of that, according to sources. They refused to be specific, but they said it would not include “crimes against humanity,” as defined in the Geneva Convention on war crimes. It also, they said, “must not be viewed as a blanket amnesty for all crimes, in general.”

One official also said the decree will not permit anyone to “get away” with “other crimes such as economic abuses. . . . Somebody one day must be accountable for” looting the national treasury over the last two years.

The sources said the decree will call for an amnesty to be “granted for all infractions derived from the coup d’etat, much broader than if you had to set a date on it.”

When asked what weapons he had to force Cedras’ compliance, Malval pointedly mentioned that “the international community” is an important factor in the efforts to solve Haiti’s crisis.

He later elaborated that the New York accord was the direct result of a crushing economic embargo that virtually destroyed Haiti’s economy. “Definitely,” he said when asked if he would ask for renewed sanctions. “Sanctions could bring them to (observe the) Oct. 30 deadline.”

He said Cedras is increasingly isolated even from other military officers and the business and social elite that supported the coup. These “people realize there is no future for this country if they don’t go along with the process,” Malval said.

“It has come to the point,” he said, “that I have asked Gen. Cedras what are the options, what options does he have left,” other than to observe the accord and allow Aristide’s return.

On the crucial point of Francois’ removal, Malval indicated that action is up to Cedras as part of his commitment to fulfill the New York accord. If Francois refuses to obey orders from Cedras or the new army commander, he will be removed by law or force, Malval said.

The next step is up to Cedras, who, Malval said, must understand there is no doubt that Aristide will return as scheduled.

“There is no doubt in my mind,” Malval said. “There is no doubt in Aristide’s mind, there is no doubt in (U.N. Secretary General Boutros) Boutros-Ghali’s mind, no doubt in President Clinton’s mind that on Oct. 30, President Aristide will be here.”

Malval said it has been made clear to Cedras and the military that Aristide’s return is “the best option you have left,” but “if they want everything to end in catastrophe, that will be their historic responsibility.”