21581: (Chamberlain) Haitian returned (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHELLE FAUL

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 27 (AP) -- Hundreds of Haitians, many barefoot,
came off two U.S. Coast Guard cutters after being caught at sea and foiled
in their attempts to start new lives in the United States.
   Jean-Fresnel Cheriza was among the few not disheartened by being sent
home Tuesday to a country still traumatized by a February rebellion that
forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's departure.
   "If there's a boat tomorrow morning, I'm on it," he said, explaining
that this was his fifth attempt to reach Miami.
   Most of those interviewed said they were fleeing political persecution
and an upsurge in violence, looting and accompanying fear.
   The U.S. Coast Guard said it returned 651 men, women and children. A
total of 1,948 Haitians have been found at sea and returned home in 2004,
Coast Guard officials said. The numbers have already surpassed those from
the past two years: 1,490 Haitians were caught in 2003, 1,287 in 2002 and
1,956 in 2001.
   Twenty-five Haitians remained aboard one of the cutters to be screened
for political asylum, the Coast Guard said.
   A few of those repatriated were suffering dehydration but most were fine
after a couple of days at sea, officials said. They were found on three
boats on Friday and Saturday that left from different locations and were
found off the coasts of Cuba, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
   "It's definitely a moving sight to see these people who will put
themselves in such serious harm just to go to the U.S.," said Petty Officer
Donnie Brzuska, who helped stop one of the boats that was spotted near Cuba
by U.S. aircraft.
   Haitians appear undeterred by President Bush's strong warning Feb. 25 to
"stay home" or face forced repatriation.
   Human rights groups and some U.S. legislators have criticized Bush's
policy, saying he is breaking international treaties signed by the United
States that require it to give shelter to people fleeing political
persecution or chaos.
   Other desperate Haitians have been trying their luck instead in
neighboring Jamaica. Police there detained 128 Haitians who arrived in two
boats Monday, bringing to 429 the number of Haitians to land there since
the rebellion.
   It was the largest group to arrive there this year, and the overall
figure represents the largest influx to Jamaica since thousands of Haitians
fled during a 1991-1994 military regime that first ousted Aristide.
   Those brought home Tuesday were the first interceptions made in two
months by the U.S. Coast Guard, which strengthened its patrols off the
Haitian coast with 10 cutters -- up from two -- following Bush's warning
and amid fears that the rebellion would result in an exodus on the scale of
the tens of thousands who fled between 1991 and 1994.
   Then-President Bill Clinton sent 20,000 troops to Haiti in September
1994 to restore the Caribbean nation's first freely elected president in
200 years of independence, halt brutalities under the coup regime accused
of the killings, torture and maimings of thousands of Aristide supporters.
   Bush sent a much smaller force within hours of Aristide's Feb. 29
departure to lead a multinational force of 3,600 troops including soldiers
from France, Chile and Canada to restore order.
   Cheriza, a 32-year-old who gets by doing odd jobs, and many others among
the would-be refugees, said they were fleeing political persecution by
members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, a perceived increase in
insecurity and the ever-soaring cost of living.
   Many people sell all their belongings, even their homes, to be able to
pay smugglers who charge anything from $100 to $450.
   The U.S Coast Guard said it destroyed all three boats carrying migrants
because they were unsafe.
   It's not known how many Haitians die at sea trying to reach the United
States. At least nine people drowned and many were missing in waters near
Haiti's Gonave Island, after an overloaded small boat capsized over the
weekend, Radio Vision 2000 reported.