18462: (Chamberlain) U.S. preparing Guantanamo Bay for Haitian refugees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Alan Elsner

     WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The United States is preparing a
detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to house tens of thousands of
refugees who may flee unrest in Haiti, officials in humanitarian
organizations said on Wednesday.
     One official said the State Department had briefed a number of
non-governmental organizations on its plans to accommodate as many as
50,000 refugees in the detention facility until they could be sent back to
Haiti.
     The facility would not be in the same place as the prison camp being
operated by the U.S. military for detainees captured in Afghanistan and
being treated as enemy combatants in the "war on terrorism."
     "The State Department told us they were getting slots ready for as
many as 50,000 at Guantanamo and they would like humanitarian organizations
to be involved in caring for these people," said one official, who asked
not to be named.
     Another source, confirming this, said the humanitarian organizations
were considering their response to the request to be involved in running
the camp.
     A State Department official said: "We are ready for that type of
situation. There are contingencies planning to provide for placing people
there."
     The United States has used Guantanamo Bay to house Haitian refugees in
the past. In the early 1990s, when Haiti was under military rule, over
30,000 refugees were held there.
     Violent protests against the rule of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
have exploded into a full-scale armed revolt in recent days.
    More than 35 people have been killed in the violence. On Wednesday,
police and supporters of Aristide shot dead three people, smashed down
doors and trashed homes in a sweep through the city of St. Marc to mop up
remnants of an armed revolt there, residents said.
     Gunfire rang out over a slum area and a pall of smoke rose from one
burning building in the coastal city that was taken over by rebels at the
weekend.
     According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the number of Haitians intercepted
while trying to flee their country has risen so far this year, but is still
far below the levels seen in the early 1990s. For instance, in 1992, the
Coast Guard intercepted over 31,000 Haitians.
     In fiscal year 2003, which ended last September, the number was 2,013.
Since October, the number was 1,125.