19252: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Haitians stopped off Miami (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Thu, Feb. 26, 2004

Haitians stopped off Miami

BY TERE FIGUERAS, JACQUELINE CHARLES AND LUISA YANEZ

lyanez@herald.com


The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a freighter seven miles off Miami on
Wednesday in an incident that the vessel's captain described in radio
transmissions as an armed hijacking by 17 men who said they were Haitian
police officers and government officials.

The Coast Guard would not confirm late Wednesday that the 199-foot Margot
had been hijacked.

''We haven't determined whether this is a hijacking or not. We don't have
all the facts,'' said Jesus Torres, special agent in charge of Immigration
and Customs Enforcement in Miami.

The incident ended peacefully about 7:15 p.m. when federal authorities
boarded the vessel. They confiscated three rifles and a handgun.

FBI and immigration agents were aboard the Margot late Wednesday
interviewing the seven Filipino crew members, four legitimate passengers
believed to be Haitians, and 17 other people also believed to be Haitian
nationals.

If a hijacking is confirmed, it would be the first incident in a decade in
which Haitian migrants used force to reach South Florida. It comes in the
midst of a violent rebellion in Haiti and U.S. efforts to prevent an exodus
of migrants from the island.

Two weeks ago, eight armed Haitian police officers tried to get to Miami by
boat but wound up in Jamaica because the boat captain wasn't sure how to get
to South Florida.

Lt. Tony Russell, a Coast Guard spokesman, said the number of Haitians
fleeing the island is not abnormally high. ''We have no indication of a mass
migration,'' he said.

The Coast Guard reports that it has picked up 370 Haitians so far this year.

The Panamanian-registered Margot's last port of call was Gonaives, a city on
the northwest coast of Haiti that has been a center of the rebellion against
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It is unclear when the Margot,
owned by a Dutch company, left that port. Authorities late Wednesday did not
know the vessel's original destination.

DRAMA BEGINS

Wednesday's drama began about 4:10 p.m. off Government Cut, unfolding as the
high-seas equivalent of a SWAT team moved in on the Margot, along with a
cutter, a Black Hawk helicopter, a jet and other vessels.

First reports of the episode came from a Pompano Beach maritime tow company
official who acted as a radio intermediary between the freighter captain and
Coast Guard officials having trouble communicating with the Margot.

Larry Acheson, 38, of TowBoat/US-Fort Lauderdale, said the captain told him
17 armed hijackers who decribed themselves as police officers and government
officials took control of the vessel.

''They did in fact take them as hostage and they diverted the ship to Miami
at gunpoint,'' Acheson said.

WEAPONS

Acheson heard the captain say, ``The hostage takers have laid down their
weapons and they have brought them to the wheelhouse.''

The Coast Guard confirmed that Acheson helped them communicate with the
captain.

Neither Torres nor Coast Guard officials would speculate on whether the 17
Haitians were police officers or government officials.

''A lot of things have been said and none of it confirmed. None of these
people were in uniform so we have yet to determine if this is the case,''
Torres said.

As the blue-and-green freighter drifted in foul weather Wednesday afternoon,
a Herald reporter in a helicopter over the vessel could see a row of men,
dressed mostly in casual slacks and shirts.

They lined the starboard side of the Margot in the quickening rain as
officers aboard the Coast Guard vessels tried to communicate with them by
bullhorn and radio.

''Please get one of the security people to unload the weapons,'' said a
radioed message to the Margot's captain, about five minutes before 6 p.m.

''Can you see no bullets in the guns?'' the captain was asked. ``Can you see
that there are no bullets in all four guns?''

The captain radioed back the reply: ``Roger, roger. All the guns are safe.''

The Coast Guard officer instructed the captain to have the weapons placed in
a plastic bag, tied securely, and lowered to a waiting Coast Guard vessel
below.

''Roger, roger,'' came the response. ``The bag is ready for you now.''

The federal authorities then boarded the ship and handcuffed everyone
onboard as a precaution. No one resisted.

''It would be premature and irresponsible for us to speculate on whether
they are seeking political asylum,'' said Barbara Gonzalez, spokeswoman for
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Said Torres: ``If this is a criminal matter, we will forward the information
to the U.S. attorney's office.''

THEY SHOULD STAY

Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, said the
migrants should not be repatriated.

''Anyone who would send anyone back is cold, heartless and with no humanity.
The situation is chaotic now,'' she said. ``How can anyone with a heart
decide to send these people back, whoever they are.''

In Miami, news that those in charge of keeping order might be fleeing was
seen as ominous by Haitian activists.

''If in fact they are police officers, seeking safe haven, it is additional
proof this situation is out of President Aristide's control,'' said Gepsie
Metellus, director of the Sant La Neighborhood Center. ``He has lost all
control.''

The last Haitian migrant hijackings to reach South Florida were in 1993,
when a Haitian man commandeered a flight from Cap Haitien to West Palm
Beach, and the captain of a Haitian freighter announced to a crowd at
Port-de-Paix that the boat was going to Miami.

In 2000, 10 former Haitian National Police officers seized a ferry, but the
boat was found by the Coast Guard after it became stranded in international
waters 30 miles south of Andros Island in the Bahamas.

Herald staff writers Ina Paiva Cordle and Carol Rosenberg and researcher
Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this report.

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