Haiti’s Exiled Leader to Turn Up Heat on U.S.

Exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, concluding that the Clinton Administration is backing away from his bid to regain power, plans a series of steps to pressure Washington into taking stronger action against the military rulers of the impoverished Caribbean nation, sources say.

The ousted president may soon call on his supporters in Haiti to set sail for the U.S. mainland in a flotilla of small boats, to embarrass the Administration and challenge its refugee policy, say the sources, who are close to Aristide.

They also say that Aristide may call on African American leaders to exert more public and private pressure on President Clinton. And as a third step, Aristide may urge France or Canada to take over the U.S. leadership role in trying to force the Haitian military to step aside.

Aristide’s camp concedes that the strategy is born of desperation. But after allowing the Administration to set the agenda for the past year, Aristide has concluded that his best chance for regaining power may lie in making such a nuisance of himself that the United States will throw its full weight behind his bid to return to Port-au-Prince--if only to get him out of Washington.

There can be no doubt that the Administration already is weary of Aristide, a populist Roman Catholic priest who in December, 1990, won an overwhelming victory in Haiti’s only democratic presidential election. He was deposed by the military in a bloody coup less than a year later.

State Department spokesman Mike McCurry complained that Aristide was unwilling to explore compromises that could permit him to regain at least some of his lost power. Asked whether he was accusing Aristide of intransigence, McCurry said: “That’s close to our reading, yes.”

The Administration wants Aristide to endorse a plan put forward by eight members of Haiti’s Parliament. It calls on the exiled president to name a new prime minister, who would form a coalition government. Once the new government was established, Aristide would return to Haiti and reclaim the presidency--although he would have to share power with the prime minister.

Aristide flatly rejected the plan, maintaining that it does not guarantee he would ever regain his lost office. A similar proposal last fall failed when Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the army commander, and other military leaders refused to keep their promise to step down and the U.S. government did not try to enforce the agreement.

Aristide’s supporters say trying the same approach again would be pointless, especially without any sort of commitment from the United States to pressure the military into keeping its side of the bargain.

Aristide and the Haitian Parliament members met for four hours Thursday. Afterward, Aristide said his position was unchanged.

Aristide’s supporters also fear that if a prime minister is named before Aristide regains power, the military might compromise with the prime minister to create the appearance of democracy while freezing out the deposed president. Although Aristide enjoys the fanatical support of the island’s impoverished majority, he is hated and feared by the military command and by the wealthy civilian elite.

Aristide’s trump card in his relationship with the United States is the refugee issue.

After Aristide was deposed, Haitians who feared political repression began trying to flee to the United States in small boats. Shortly after Clinton took office last year, Aristide--encouraged by the President’s support of renewed efforts to restore democracy to the island nation--urged Haiti’s poor to remain at home. He also tacitly approved the Administration’s policy of intercepting Haitian boat people on the high seas and sending them back.

Last week, however, Aristide broke with the Administration and criticized it for returning the refugees. Now, the sources say, he is considering going much further by urging Haitians to flee the island. Such a step could create a flood of refugees that would deeply embarrass the Administration.

For months, the Congressional Black Caucus and some other African American leaders--joined by white liberals on Capitol Hill and a group of artists and celebrities--have been urging the Administration to take stronger action to restore Aristide. Now, Aristide strategists say, the exiled president is ready to urge those groups to be far more forceful. That move could be troublesome for Clinton because the groups are potentially important segments of his political base.

As if on cue, 40 members of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy (D-Mass.), on Friday called on the Administration to urge the U.N. Security Council to impose an economic embargo on Haiti to force the military to allow Aristide to return.

The United States, France, Canada and Venezuela are circulating a draft of such a resolution at the United Nations but have not yet introduced it.