19108: (Chamberlain) Haitians arrive by boat in Jamaica (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     KINGSTON, Jamaica, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Three more groups of Haitians
have landed in Jamaica, which brought to more than 100 the number who have
arrived from the nearby Caribbean country this month, and the government
worried many more could flee the violent rebellion in their homeland.
     The three groups, totaling 82 people, arrived off Portland in
northeastern Jamaica within a four-hour period on Monday, officials said on
Tuesday.
     Some 112 Haitians have arrived by boat in Jamaica, which lies about
100 miles (160 km) west of Haiti, since a rebellion against President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide erupted in the western Haitian city of Gonaives on
Feb. 5. The Haitians are being cared for by the Jamaican Red Cross and
several government agencies.
     A police source told Reuters that one member of the latest group, who
speaks some English, said that there were many other boatloads of people
heading toward Jamaica.
     Jamaican disaster preparedness officials said that accommodation was
becoming a serious concern for them. An official at Prime Minister P.J.
Patterson's office said the Cabinet devoted much of its Monday meeting to
the crisis in Haiti.
     U.S. authorities have also been concerned that the violence in Haiti,
which has killed more than 60 people, could trigger an exodus like that of
the early 1990s, when tens of thousands of Haitians fled political violence
in the poorest country in the Americas, trying to get to the United States.
     The U.S. Coast Guard has been monitoring the Windward Pass, the
stretch of sea to the northwest of Haiti, but so far, the agency has not
reported an unusual number of Haitian boat people setting out on the
600-mile (966-km) journey toward Florida.