Aristide Ends U.S.-Haiti Pact on Refugees

Exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in a letter to President Clinton, said he is ending a treaty that allows the United States to stop fleeing Haitian refugees at sea and return them to their homeland, an Aristide aide said Wednesday.

Clinton Administration officials said the letter was received Monday at the White House and was under review.

Aristide legal adviser Michael Barnes said Aristide’s letter gave a required six-month notice to terminate the treaty, which has been used as the legal basis for U.S. Coast Guard interception of thousands of Haitian boat people.

A State Department spokesman said the United States would continue to operate under the terms of the 1981 agreement because of the provision for six months’ notice.

On Tuesday, a U.S. official in Haiti had said the military resumed its policy of arresting some of the boat people forcibly returned to the country.

Human rights groups have also reported an increase in the numbers of arrests and killings of Aristide supporters in Haiti in recent weeks as the military fights any move to return Aristide to power. The military ousted him in September, 1991, and failed to honor an agreement to restore him to power.

The 1981 agreement originally called for the refugees to receive repatriation hearings at sea to determine whether they were fleeing the country for political or economic reasons.

But in May, 1992, then-President George Bush changed the policy so that all boat people were returned to Haiti and only after they were back could they apply for political asylum in the United States.

Barnes said Aristide cited the Bush changes as a sign that the United States had already abrogated the treaty.

Barnes, a former U.S. congressman, said Aristide was urging Haitians not to take to the open seas in boats to flee to the United States because of the dangers involved in the trip.

He said “serious, constructive” discussions were going on between the Clinton Administration and the Aristide government at the highest levels to resolve problems between the two sides.