New Policy Cited as Exodus of Haitians Abates

The number of Haitian refugees picked up by U.S. patrol vessels declined sharply Saturday, the Coast Guard reported, prompting officials to speculate that the Clinton Administration’s new restrictions on asylum-seekers may be working.

Coast Guard officials said that, as of 8 p.m. PDT Saturday, the service encountered only 242 Haitians, one of the smallest daily totals since June 16, when the Clinton Administration expanded its facilities for processing Haitian refugees aboard ships.

The figure marked a significant decline from Friday’s 24-hour total of 1,859. Since June 15, about 16,000 Haitians have been intercepted as they sought to flee the country by boat in hopes of immigrating to the United States.

Jack O’Dell, a Coast Guard spokesman, said the service had no way of knowing for certain why the number declined so sharply Saturday. Officials speculated, however, that the Administration finally may be succeeding in convincing Haitians that such voyages are futile.

Officials involved in the Haitian refugee problem said that, if Saturday’s low figure continues today and Monday, they will assume that radio broadcasts the United States is sponsoring--to inform Haitians of the Administration’s new restrictions--are succeeding.

The Administration has been beaming radio broadcasts to Haiti in its effort to inform ordinary Haitians of its decision to close the door on possible immigration for those who seek to escape Haiti by boat, but until Saturday the effort showed no signs of success.

Clinton eased his immigration policies in June and began allowing Haitians to seek asylum on ships--in the Caribbean and off the coast of Jamaica--assigned to process their applications, but the shift caused a surge in refugees.

In an effort to slow the exodus, the White House announced last week that Haitians intercepted at sea would no longer be allowed to immigrate to America and would instead be transported to “havens” outside the United States.

Only Haitians who apply for asylum at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince or at two provincial locations will be allowed into the United States--a step that some Haitians have complained is dangerous, because it makes them vulnerable to retaliation by Haiti’s military.

The Administration continues trying to find more Caribbean countries that might be willing to provide facilities for Haitian refugees who are picked up at sea by U.S. and allied warships.

So far, only Grenada, Antigua and Dominica have agreed in principle to allow the United States to set up holding camps for Haitians. Panama had said last week that it would admit 10,000 refugees to U.S. camps there, but Panamanian President Guillermo Endara withdrew the offer Thursday in a spat with Washington.

As the effort to find other havens continued, a U.S. amphibious-ready group, led by the amphibious assault ship Inchon, continued to steam toward the waters off Haiti carrying 2,000 Marines, ostensibly for possible evacuation of Americans in case of an invasion.

Officials said the task force is scheduled to arrive late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The amphibious command ship Mt. Whitney is set to leave Norfolk, Va., for Haiti early this week to relieve the amphibious assault ship Wasp in the area.

Elsewhere Saturday, two prominent human rights groups rebuked the Administration for not responding more vigorously to a reported increase in politically motivated rapes in Haiti, urging it to denounce the use of rape as a “tool of political persecution.”

In a report made public in Port-au-Prince, Human Rights Watch and the National Coalition for Haitian Refugees, both headquartered in New York, called the Administration’s response “a disturbing aspect of U.S. policy.”

Also Saturday, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney warned against using U.S. military power to topple the military leadership in Haiti, asserting that Haiti has “been a mess for a long time . . . and going back in again now with military force won’t fix it.”

He also dismissed the Haitian situation as “a self-manufactured crisis” that points to ineptitude by the Clinton Administration and “raises doubts about (its) foreign policies . . . all over” the world. He said the U.S. has no strategic interest in Haiti.

Cheney, who served during the George Bush Administration, made his remarks on CNN’s “Evans and Novak” program.

He said a military operation itself would pose no significant problem for the United States, because the Haitian armed forces are so weak. “The problem is, what are you going to do once you accept responsibility for Haiti?” Cheney said.