Clinton Eases U.S. Sanctions Against Haiti

President Clinton, asserting that the American military intervention will soon end human rights abuses in Haiti, softened U.S. economic sanctions against the impoverished Caribbean nation Monday to permit a resumption of airline service, financial transactions and humanitarian projects.

In a speech to the General Assembly, Clinton said it is time to begin rebuilding Haiti’s shattered economy because elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted in a military coup three years ago, is scheduled to regain power in less than three weeks.

“Essential civil order will be restored,” Clinton said. “Human rights violations will be curbed. . . . The military leaders will step down, the democratic government will be restored. President Aristide will return.”

Clinton said he has already lifted U.S. sanctions except those aimed directly at military leaders and their civilian supporters, and he urged other countries to do the same. He said the embargo imposed by the Security Council should be ended after Aristide’s return to Haiti, scheduled for soon after Oct. 15. Food, medicine and other humanitarian goods should begin flowing immediately, he added.

Relaxation of the sanctions was part of a U.S. charm offensive intended to show most Haitians that the projected 15,000-strong U.S. military presence is friendly. In other steps, the U.S. forces began distributing food and medicine and launched a project to restore electric service throughout the country. The U.S. military also announced plans to protect the Haitian Parliament and to transport exiled lawmakers back to Port-au-Prince for a key meeting Wednesday.

At the same time, Defense Secretary William J. Perry said the Pentagon will make no changes in the rules that permit U.S. troops to use deadly force to protect themselves or to prevent human rights abuses by the Haitian authorities, despite a weekend shooting in Cap Haitien that left 10 Haitian policemen dead.

In his U.N. speech, Clinton said that Aristide proposed an end to sanctions Sunday “in the spirit of reconciliation and reconstruction.” Aristide had strongly supported the economic embargo earlier as a way to put pressure on the Haitian military command, which overthrew him Sept. 30, 1991.

“I intend to act expeditiously . . . to restore health care, water and electrical services; construction materials for humanitarian efforts, and communications, agricultural and educational materials,” Clinton said. All of those shipments are theoretically permitted under a humanitarian exception to the embargo voted by the Security Council in May, but in reality the overall embargo has been so tight that few of these supplies have reached Haiti. The U.N. ban on petroleum products and weapons will remain in effect until Aristide is back in power.

Clinton also lifted unilateral U.S. restrictions on commercial airline flights, financial transactions and travel.

Although the U.S. intervention in Haiti was endorsed by the Security Council, the General Assembly delegates did not applaud any part of the Haiti section of the President’s speech. The U.S. military action drew rebukes from Brazil and Mexico. Both Latin American countries have long opposed what they regard as U.S. adventurism in the Western Hemisphere.

Addressing the 184 members of the United Nations just before Clinton’s speech, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim implied that the U.S. intervention had broken the spirit of the charters of both the United Nations and the Organization of American States, which prohibit interference in the internal affairs of member states.

“It was disturbing that the principles of nonintervention and self-determination were the object of interpretations that are incompatible with the charters,” he said.

Speaking just after Clinton, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari said his country is committed to re-establishing democratic order in Haiti. But he added pointedly that it also believes in “the need to give preference to peaceful and diplomatic means above all others.”

In Washington, the Pentagon said it is ready to provide a military aircraft to take 21 members of the Haitian Parliament back to Port-au-Prince for Wednesday’s debate over amnesty for Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and other junta leaders. Aristide, under pressure from the U.S. Congress, called the special session to consider a blanket pardon, which could permit Cedras and his top aides to remain in Haiti.

The bicameral Parliament consists of a 27-member Senate and an 83-member Chamber of Deputies. About 40 lawmakers are in exile, including the 21 who have asked for U.S. military transportation. Officials said that if other exiles ask for transportation, they will also get it.

In addition, U.S. troops will protect the Parliament and its members during the session. The lawmakers have not met for months because so many members are in exile or in hiding that it has been unable to muster a quorum.

At a Washington press conference, Perry said the U.S. forces will do everything possible to demonstrate to the Haitians that the occupation is friendly. At the same time, he said, the troops must make sure that the military government abides by its promise to step down by Oct. 15.

“They (the troops) are there as friends and not invaders, and that’s manifested by the delivery of food and medicine,” Perry said.