U.S. Transfers First Cubans to Panama Camps

This beleaguered military base, struggling to accommodate an exodus of migrants from Cuba and Haiti, received some measure of relief Tuesday with the departure of the first of 10,000 Cuban refugees for Panama.

About 100 Cubans, seemingly all still hopeful of reaching the United States, boarded two C-130 Air Force transport planes Tuesday afternoon for Howard Air Force Base in Panama, where they were bused to one of four camps still under construction. Each camp is capable of holding as many as 2,500 refugees.

About 150 Haitians are expected to leave today for a new camp being set up by the U.S. military in Suriname on the north coast of South America.

There was some ominous news, however, from the Florida Straits. Another 4,000 Cubans rescued from rafts and other small craft were on naval ships heading for Guantanamo.

With Cubans still arriving every day, Guantanamo’s refugee population is growing fast and officials here are increasingly worried about keeping order and providing water and the other basic necessities. Eleven Haitians are in administrative segregation after a rock-throwing melee on Sunday that left one migrant seriously injured and six U.S. Army military police with minor injuries. And Cubans were involved in their first rock-throwing incident Tuesday, in which two soldiers suffered minor injuries.

But U.S. officials hope that voluntary departures will relieve some of the pressure.

The first departing groups and others who will follow in almost daily flights in coming weeks, face an uncertain future, as do all of the more than 37,000 migrants, mostly Cubans, housed in sprawling tent cities in this military base in southeastern Cuba.

All who left Tuesday were volunteers and all seemed hopeful that their next home would be more amenable than the Spartan quarters here.

“At least we’re finally getting out of Cuba,” said Ariel Vicente Pena Hernandez, a 25-year-old barber from Havana who was among those headed to Panama. “I feel safer away from here.”

The outgoing flights to Panama and Suriname will be a daily occurrence in coming days, military authorities said.

“We hope to keep ‘em moving through the pipeline,” said Lt. Pete Mitchell, a base spokesman. “This helps us out.”

Cubans going to Panama expressed hope that the transfer would somehow bring them closer to entering the United States, though U.S. officials have said adamantly that they will not be given entry. Departing Cubans interviewed Tuesday before their flight to Panama left no doubt that their final destination is the United States, usually Florida, where many have relatives.

“Maybe it will be easier for us to get in from Panama,” said Osmany Aleman, a 23-year-old former tobacco worker from near Havana.

Said Odalis Gonzalez, a 29-year-old mother accompanied by her husband and her 11-year-old son: “We hope to be in Florida soon. There is nothing for us in Cuba now.”

The Panamanian government has indicated that the migrants can remain for six months, authorities said. Suriname will apparently take 2,500 Haitians.

The transfer is part of the Clinton Administration’s strategy to house the refugees in other nations and continue to deny them access to U.S. territory.

If they were to reach the United States, officials noted, the migrants could apply for political asylum, a process that can drag on for months or years. In Guantanamo, on the other hand, they are simply being afforded temporary haven, presumably until they can return to their homelands. Cubans and Haitians here cannot apply for asylum. Nor will they be able to do so in Panama and Suriname, authorities said.

Those Cubans bound for Panama seemed in a generally upbeat mood, their morale apparently boosted by the prospect of leaving their native island. The prospect of change from the boring routine of camp life here also improved spirits, though it is unclear if conditions will be any less basic in Panama.

“They told us the camp in Panama would be nicer,” said Pena, who, like most others, was wearing a military-issue T-shirt and shorts as he and others gathered in a shady patio for the flight to Panama. “There will be books and we will learn English, plus there’ll be toys and games for the kids.”

No one seemed to want to go back to Cuba.

“I’m never going back,” said Aleman, a wiry young man who said he lost his job in Cuba because of political differences with the regime. “I want to make my life in the United States now.”

But in an indication of fraying nerves at the camps, Cuban migrants here threw rocks at military police during a noon melee, leaving two soldiers with minor injuries. The incident began, authorities said, when a military police officer detained a Cuban who had crossed a camp fence to retrieve a soccer ball. As many as 450 Cubans were involved in the incident, many shouting at military police while some threw rocks, said Maj. Rick Thomas, a base spokesman. No Cubans were injured in the brawl, the first rock-throwing incident involving Cubans being held here.

Of the 23,000 Cubans now at Guantanamo, only one has asked to return to Cuba, said Mitchell. Officials are studying the request, Mitchell said, as there is currently no means of repatriating Cubans.

By contrast, some 5,000 Haitians have returned to their homeland since July, authorities said. All went back voluntarily, officials said.

Last spring, President Clinton halted involuntary repatriations of the Haitians after the policy prompted international condemnation.

The mood of the departing Cubans contrasted Tuesday with the more somber ambience of the Haitian camps. The Haitians are being held in separate quarters from the Cubans. Many Haitians suspect that the Cubans are receiving preferential treatment, prompting some unrest, authorities said. It is clear that many Haitians are angry about their status.

On Sunday, according to military officials, about 50 Haitians crossed a fence line at one camp and began hurling rocks at soldiers. Many had been demonstrating over conditions at the camps. A Haitian teen-ager suffered a cracked skull and was flown to Miami for treatment. Six soldiers suffered minor wounds in the fracas, authorities said.

Eleven Haitians identified as rock throwers were placed in “administrative segregation,” apart from other Haitian migrants, Mitchell said. The disciplinary action will likely not exceed four days, he said.

Visitors to the Haitian camp on Tuesday found the situation calm. But the migrants were still clearly concerned about the possibility that Cubans would be allowed to enter the United States while Haitians would remained detained in camps here and in Suriname. Haitians also blamed a soldier for injuring the Haitian boy who was being treated in the United States for a cracked skull.

“Why are the Cubans allowed to go to Panama and we are being offered only Suriname?” asked one of the Haitian camp leaders.

Although U.S. authorities said that many Haitians had volunteered to go to Suriname, those interviewed on Tuesday were extremely suspect.

“To me Suriname is just another concentration, like this.” said Wilfrid Charles, a 34-year-old tractor driver from Jeremie who fled Haiti this spring in fear of his life.

Times staff writer Richard A. Serrano contributed to this story from Washington.