Violence Awaits Haiti’s Aristide, U.S. Worries

U.S. officials expressed fears Friday that deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will return to Haiti next Saturday against the Haitian military’s will, risking a new convulsion of violence in the nation and increasing pressure for U.S. military intervention.

Aristide has continued to voice his conviction that the stalemate with his military opponents will be broken, allowing his return on the Oct. 30 date that was set this summer in a deal brokered by the United Nations. But he also has hinted that he might go even if the impasse is not ended in hopes of forcing a resolution of the crisis.

In a televised interview Friday, Aristide said he believes that his military opponents will cede control of the government by the deadline. But he added that in any event, he has packed his bags for a return and he does not fear for his life.

“We need to go on that day. I am ready,” Aristide told PBS’ “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.”

Such a move could set off a bloody clash between the poorly armed Haitian masses who support Aristide and the military, police and segments of the Haitian elite who oppose him. And it could make increasingly untenable U.S. efforts to broker a return to democracy without U.S. military involvement in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Suggestions of Aristide’s return also awakened fears that the opposition might plan an airport ambush such as the one in which Benigno S. Aquino Jr., a prominent opponent of Philippine dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, was assassinated in August, 1983, in Manila.

Michael D. Barnes, Aristide’s at torney in the United States, said that the Haitian president had not discussed any plans to return.

“I would advise against it,” Barnes said. “It would be very dangerous.”

Meanwhile, the White House entered a widening public dispute over a CIA report that portrays Aristide as mentally unstable and involved in violence against political opponents during his seven months as president.

The report, used this week in briefings for members of Congress, said that Aristide urged supporters to murder their opponents with a technique called “necklacing,” in which gasoline-soaked tires are placed around victims’ necks and lighted. The report includes claims that Aristide was treated in a mental hospital in Canada in 1980, diagnosed as manic depressive and prescribed large quantities of drugs.

The allegations have caused some congressional critics to argue that the United States should not embroil itself in Haiti on behalf of such a leader.

But White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said that Aristide has been “rational and responsible” in his dealings with the United States and that in the Administration’s view he is “fully qualified” to be Haiti’s president.

Administration officials disputed the accuracy of the report, saying that it included contradictory information and was about 2 years old.

And Aristide himself denied having had mental health problems. “Never, never and never,” he told the Washington Post. “I was hospitalized for treatment of hepatitis when I was 13 or 14. I have not been hospitalized in Canada or anywhere else for any reason during my adult life. I do not use drugs, and I do not take any medication now, nor did I at any time in my adulthood, because my health is excellent.

“If the CIA or anyone says differently, I challenge them to name the hospital and doctors and produce the records of any treatment.”

Blaming political foes for false information, Barnes said that Aristide also is not responsible for any “necklacings” or other rights abuses.

In Haiti, meanwhile, Aristide’s allies in an interim democratic government neared a showdown with the military government over the shutdown of gasoline stations on the island in response to a U.N. embargo against shipments of arms and oil.

Interim Prime Minister Robert Malval has been urging the shutdown, while the military has dispatched troops to keep some stations open at gunpoint. But in an apparent contradiction, Malval said later Friday that he would urge the military to allow the sale of oil supplies for the benefit of the population.

Motorist lines at the remaining few open stations lengthened. The blockade, being enforced by U.S. and Canadian ships since Tuesday, was imposed by the United Nations to force the military to yield power.

U.S. Embassy officials in Haiti warned against any seizures of any foreign-owned stations. “I think we’d view that very seriously, if it should happen,” embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager said.

Texaco, the last major foreign-owned oil retailer operating in Haiti, planned to halt all operations Friday. Shell and Esso suspended business Thursday.

Relief officials said the oil embargo is hitting the impoverished Haitian population harder than last spring’s embargo because the oil stocks on the island were locked up rather than distributed among users. As a consequence, charities have not had enough fuel to make food deliveries.

Bill Novelli, chief operating officer of CARE, which feeds 620,000 Haitians a day, described the situation as grim.

“This embargo has the potential to end our ability to feed these people unless we can find supplies somewhere, and that doesn’t look all that promising,” said Novelli, who is located in the organization’s Atlanta headquarters.

In other developments Friday:

* The federal Foreign Assets Control Office seized the U.S. assets of Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who heads the army; Gen. Philippe Biamby, the army’s No. 3 officer, and 39 other soldiers and right-wing leaders who either participated in the September, 1991, coup that toppled Aristide or have worked to block his return.

* The Miami-based relief organization Food for the Poor said a shipment of rice, soy milk, medical supplies and baby cribs for Haiti had been stopped by warships enforcing the blockade. The items are exempt from the embargo, but the group said that its ship was turned back because its cargo could not be adequately inspected.

* A U.S. military plane landed in Haiti and unloaded armored vehicles to help with security for Malval, embassy spokesman Schrager said without elaboration.

* A private funeral was held for Haitian Justice Minister Guy Malary, assassinated Oct. 14 by gunmen. Only about 30 immediate family members, business associates and Cabinet members attended the Protestant ceremony at a private funeral home.

* The Dutch government decided to join the U.N. sea blockade against Haiti with a Dutch Royal Navy ship based in the Netherlands Antilles.

Times staff writers David Lauter in Washington and Edith Stanley in Atlanta contributed to this article.