Haiti Strongman Balks; Sanctions Voted by U.N.

Military strongman Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras on Wednesday applied all but impossible conditions to his promised resignation, and the U.N. Security Council later voted to reimpose severe sanctions on Haiti unless he capitulates to U.N. demands.

Cedras’ remarks seemed to dissolve the already doubtful chances that exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide would return to Haiti on Oct. 30 under the agreement signed by both men in New York on July 3.

Asked at a news conference if he would resign by Friday as promised, the army chief answered, “I hope so.” But he added that he would not quit unless the Haitian Parliament passes a law providing total amnesty for him and all others involved in the Sept. 30, 1991, coup that overthrew Aristide.

Aristide has already decreed a limited political amnesty for Cedras and others involved in the revolt, but the general now demands a wider pardon from the Parliament to protect against charges of common and financial crimes. Cedras said Aristide’s decree “is, in the opinion of eminent Haitian jurists, valueless” and must be augmented by the Parliament.

The news conference took place as the Security Council was preparing to discuss its sanctions resolution in New York. In the resolution, passed unanimously, the council threatened “to consider urgently the imposition of additional measures” if the renewed sanctions fail to bring Cedras and Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, the police commander, into line. The council did not state what measures it had in mind.

The sanctions, reimposed at the urging of Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and U.S. Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright, would take effect just after midnight Sunday, EDT, prohibiting the export to Haiti of all gasoline and other petroleum products except cooking oil. All arms sales to Haiti would also be banned, and the assets of the “de facto authorities of Haiti”--a legalistic way of describing the dominant army and police officers--would be frozen.

The delay would give Cedras and Francois another chance to abide by the agreement and accept the arrival of American and other technicians under the U.N. flag. They would also have to show that they were carrying out the provisions of last summer’s Governors Island agreement “in good faith” and were preparing the way for the return of Aristide.

An American official said the delay will also show that while “the stick has returned,” the United Nations “continues to offer the carrot of technical assistance” to help in reform of the army and police.

In a speech to the council, Albright warned the Haitian military, “Some in Haiti may think that a great victory has been won, but this would be a dangerous delusion.

“The U.S. is committed to the return of Haitian democracy,” she went on. “Achieving this goal will not be easy. Our preferred course is not the stick of sanctions but the carrot of economic and technical assistance. Today, the Haitian military left us no choice.”

Sanctions had been suspended in late August, when it seemed that the Haitian army and police were fulfilling their end of the agreement that was to lead to Aristide’s return.

Boutros-Ghali’s report to the Security Council recommending the renewed sanctions, based on information relayed from Haiti by his special envoy, Dante Caputo, accused the army and police of a “clear and explicit intent to prevent the democratic process, as accepted in the (Governors Island) agreement, from taking its course.”

The secretary general also charged Cedras and Francois with “bad will” for reneging on an agreement to let the American vessel Harlan County dock in Port-au-Prince on Monday with a group of American and Canadian soldiers and police.

In appending the new conditions to his promised resignation, Cedras contended that Caputo and pro-Aristide Prime Minister Robert Malval agreed with his assessment that the current amnesty provision is inadequate, and that they have promised to introduce an amnesty bill in the National Assembly.

No such law has been introduced, and diplomats and Haitian political experts say that under the best of circumstances, the Parliament could not approve such a measure by Friday, the time set for Cedras’ resignation by the New York accord.

But the circumstances for any kind of legislative action are “less than poor, let alone good,” said one Haitian expert, explaining that anti-Aristide forces control one of the two chambers and are strong enough in the other to prevent a quorum.

“The reality of Cedras’ statement is to all but wreck the agreement,” one international official said. He called Cedras’ amnesty demand “a smoke screen designed to cover up the real intention to stop Aristide” from returning.

The July 3 New York accord provided that Cedras would be replaced by an officer of Aristide’s choosing. That would clear the way for Haiti’s first democratically elected president to return from exile Oct. 30.

The army leader criticized the United Nations for considering new sanctions without hearing his side of the story, and asked to speak to the Security Council. “I don’t think it is right. You don’t condemn someone without hearing him first,” he said.

The general also said that without the amnesty law he could not guarantee the safety of American and other foreign military forces that, under the New York pact, are supposed to reorganize and train a new Haitian army.

On Monday, mobs of army-organized anti-Aristide protesters prevented the disembarking of the first 200 of a 600-member U.S. force of engineers and trainers.

In addition to closing the port, the mob assaulted a car carrying Vicki Huddleston, the ranking U.S. diplomat here, and forced her to flee to the embassy.

The Harlan County was ordered Tuesday to retreat to the U.S. Marine base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because of the Haitian military’s failure to assure the protection of the American troops.

Cedras on Wednesday defended the armed mob as “patriots” who prevented the Harlan County from landing because some of the U.S. officers with the training force would be equipped with M-16 assault rifles.

He said the demonstrators “were concerned about threats to Haitian sovereignty” because of the presence on the ships of M-16 rifles.

The general said this violated the New York agreement, which he said provided that the Americans would be unarmed. He described the U.S. forces as an occupation army.

U.S. Defense Department officials had said the rifles would be limited in number and used only for personal protection.

According to the general, Prime Minister Malval and the United Nations had violated the New York accord by failing to name a coalition government including coup supporters and other anti-Aristide figures. Besides, he complained, millions of dollars in international aid was being wrongfully withheld until after Oct. 30.

Even before Cedras spoke to reporters, aides to Malval had cautiously acknowledged that Aristide’s return was in doubt because of the abrupt and unilateral method used by the United States in withdrawing the Harlan County.

The aides bitterly characterized the withdrawal as an “abrupt shift in the American position” that was read by Cedras as a signal of U.S. reluctance to force Aristide’s restoration. They blamed the withdrawal of the U.S. military mission on “internal American politics.”

One official said that Malval was “never informed, let alone consulted” about the departure of the Harlan County. “It was a unilateral U.S. decision,” he said. “Malval learned about it on the radio.”

The decision to pull out the ship and suspend the remainder of the military aid program also was kept from Caputo, the special U.N. envoy here who is charged with coordinating the international drive to restore Aristide.

“He (Caputo) didn’t have an inkling until he heard it on Tropic (a local radio station) about 3 o’clock,” one official said. “He was astonished and angry.”

The next phase of the Clinton Administration’s plans will not be known here until today, a Malval aide said, when senior State Department officials Lawrence Pezullo and Michael Kozak arrive from Washington, presumably to pressure Cedras to give up power.

In Washington, Pezullo dismissed the new conditions imposed by Cedras as “irrelevant.” He said Cedras has no basis for renegotiating conditions at this late date.

“He should be answering why he allowed 30 or 40 thugs to embarrass his country and his military,” Pezullo told a small group of reporters.

“The historical reality is clear,” he said. “These guys who are playing this game will be undone by the situation. They are trying to hold back a process that will sweep them aside and humble them.”

Later, a senior Administration official said the New York agreement can be salvaged if Cedras, Francois and others realize that they cannot govern the country under the weight of the economic embargo.

The official dismissed reports that the military junta had stockpiled a six-month supply of oil to cushion the impact of the sanctions.

“Before, they could only stockpile three months,” he aid. “I don’t think they have the capacity to go beyond that.”

In addition to risking sanctions, the official said, Cedras and his associates will lose hundreds of millions of dollars in potential foreign aid.

At the same time, the official said Aristide must share some of the blame for the failure of national reconciliation, which he said was the cornerstone of the Governors Island accord.

Aristide, he said, “has got to show that he’s not going to come back with blood in his eye.” He said Aristide seems to be afraid to extend an olive branch to the military because his own supporters would be outraged by such a gesture.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.

* SOMALIA WITHDRAWAL: President Clinton goes on offensive over his policy. A6