Key Democrats Urge Tougher Haiti Sanctions : Caribbean: Influential U.S. senators introduce bill to tighten embargo. It would also deny funds for repatriation of refugees.

Castigating President Clinton for pursuing a “morally bankrupt” policy on human rights, influential Senate Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday to tighten economic sanctions against Haiti and reverse the Administration policy of returning Haitian refugees intercepted on the high seas.

As criticism of the Clinton Administration’s overall handling of foreign policy mounted in Congress, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) unveiled a bill to ban all but humanitarian assistance to Haiti until its military rulers agree to step down and accept the return of the exiled Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s democratically elected president.

The bill would impose a complete commercial embargo on Haiti; freeze the U.S. assets of Haitian supporters of the military regime; suspend all air traffic between the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the United States, and, in a direct challenge to the Administration, prohibit the use of funds to intercept or repatriate Haitian refugees. It also would direct Clinton to impose sanctions on other nations that do not agree to abide by the embargo.

Dodd said the current embargo, which has been in place for six months and is widely seen as ineffective, “is ridiculous and exists in name only.”

The new sanctions, patterned after those imposed at one time on South Africa as a protest against apartheid, would “put a clamp on the (Haitian) military,” he said, by giving “real teeth” to the embargo.

Several senators conceded privately that the bill faces an uphill fight in the Senate, where many members are reluctant to intervene in Haiti or reverse the Administration policy on Haitian refugees.

Dodd said his main purpose in introducing the legislation was to “send a message to the military rulers of Haiti . . . that it is time to return President Aristide to power and restore democracy to Haiti.”

More significantly, other supporters added, it is meant to send a message to the White House that a growing number of Democrats in Congress are growing alarmed over what is perceived as vacillation--over not only Haiti but a host of other foreign policy issues.

Most of the criticism in recent days has focused on the confusion and apparent paralysis of American policy toward Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But it was clear from their comments that the senators’ criticism of Clinton’s Haiti policy flowed from concern over what several described variously as the President’s disinterested or lackluster management of foreign affairs.

“There has just got to be more attention to foreign policy,” warned Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that has jurisdiction over foreign aid.

The failure of what lawmakers see as the Administration’s halfhearted effort to return Aristide to power also has provoked complaints from some of Clinton’s key allies in the House, where Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) last week surprised colleagues by calling on Clinton to invade Haiti and oust its military junta by force.

The latest criticism was significant for the vehemence with which it came from Democrats who are normally loyal. “While I believe President Clinton . . . is a man of conscience, this policy toward Haiti is unconscionable and bankrupt, morally and politically,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).