Haiti Repression Reported Rising With Sanctions : Caribbean: U.N. secretary general sees ‘no progress’ toward ouster of military coup leaders.

Tightened international sanctions against Haiti, while failing so far to weaken military leaders there, have led to a defiant campaign of intensified repression and increased human rights abuses, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said Monday.

His report, evaluating the situation in Haiti since the Security Council strengthened sanctions last month at the Clinton Administration’s request, painted a dispiriting picture.

On the goal of the sanctions--the ouster of Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the army commander, and two of his colleagues, and the return of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide--the secretary general reported “no progress” and, in fact, open defiance.

Boutros-Ghali said there had been a sharp deterioration in the human rights situation. He said the U.N. mission in Haiti had documented “50 politically related killings” since the latest sanctions resolution was adopted May 6.

In many cases the perpetrators were identified as members of the military or as young toughs belonging to a paramilitary pro-Cedras organization known as the Revolutionary Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti (FRAPH).

“The executions seem consistent with a systematic elimination of members of popular organizations which support the return to constitutional order,” he told the council. He also reported “new patterns of repression, such as the abduction and rape of family members of political activists.”

He described security in Haiti for diplomats and U.N. staff as “highly unstable” and said Haitian soldiers and armed civilians have subjected them to “threats and intimidation.” The lack of security, the report says, has contributed to a deterioration of humanitarian aid.

In its resolution May 6, the council tightened sanctions by extending its embargo on oil imports to cover all trade with the exception of food and medicine. Yet imports of these essential goods “have decreased considerably,” the secretary general said, attributing this, in part, to “a scarcity of local currency to pay for local goods.”

But he noted hopeful signs. Although the appeal in March, 1993, by the United Nations and the Organization of American States for $62.7 million in Haiti relief had fallen short by more than $50 million, he said the enormous deficit had been more than made up by donations from non-governmental organizations and countries acting on their own.

Discussing sanctions, Boutros-Ghali said that 11 navy vessels--eight U.S., one Canadian, one Argentine and one Dutch--now make up a cordon around the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. France has promised to dispatch a French ship there soon. The report added that small U.S. boats have also joined the patrol.

While news reports have described the Dominican border with Haiti as porous, the secretary general stressed that the United Nations had received good cooperation from Dominican President Joaquin Balaguer in closing the border.

The Dominican president, in fact, seemed almost too cooperative. Soon after the council passed its resolution, he sealed the border so thoroughly that no food and medicine were moving into Haiti. Balaguer finally agreed the border should be opened to allow in the food and medicine, the report said.