Haitians Stop U.S. Senator’s Trip to Border

Army troops forced a U.S. senator Sunday to abandon a fact-finding trip to the border with the Dominican Republic in the latest snub to international efforts to force military leaders into giving up power.

Armed soldiers turned back U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida when he tried to visit Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic to check on enforcement of international economic sanctions against Haiti.

Accompanied by U.S. Ambassador William L. Swing, Graham’s visit came two days after Haiti’s de facto government barred foreigners, including reporters, from the border, the coastline, Haiti’s international waters and other “strategic areas.”

Graham, a Democrat, said he was disappointed about being turned back but added, “I’m not surprised.”

Graham called the decree restricting people’s movement “the kind of action that you would expect from an authoritarian regime which considers itself to be increasingly isolated and under threat.”

The embargo is designed to pressure the ruling military to turn over power to elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a September, 1991, coup. President Clinton last week barred most financial transactions between the two countries, and U.S. commercial flights will stop at midnight Friday.

Military leaders have enriched themselves on sales of black-market gasoline smuggled across the border from the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbor on the island of Hispaniola. Dominican President Joaquin Balaguer recently promised to seal the border, but gasoline has been getting through in such large quantities that its price in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, has dropped from $10 a gallon to $6.

In an interview late Saturday, Graham said he favored U.S. military intervention within 60 days if sanctions fail to dislodge the army leaders. At Fumbya, Graham said he was confident Clinton would take decisive action in Haiti to counter charges of “vacillation” in his foreign policy decisions.

“Haiti will be a place where the President can demonstrate his resolve,” the senator said.