30560: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti soccer players flee (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By SAMANTHA GROSS

   NEW YORK, June 13 (AP) -- Most of a Haitian national youth soccer team
apparently deserted the squad during an airport stopover hours before a
planned Wednesday trip to South Korea to prepare for the upcoming FIFA
Under-17 World Cup.
   By Wednesday afternoon, six of the 13 missing players had returned to
the airport and turned themselves in to team officials, said Felix
Augustin, the Haitian consul in New York. It was unclear where the
youngsters had been and why they had left the team, he said.
   "All I know is that six of them have been retrieved and we're still
looking for the others," he said by telephone.
   Most of the team's 18 players, all under age 17, had gone missing from
John F. Kennedy International Airport between Tuesday night and Wednesday
morning, Augustin said.
   Earlier, Augustin had said that officials were making calls to members
of the Haitian community to try to get the children back.
   The players arrived from Haiti on Tuesday and were scheduled to leave
early Wednesday for Seoul, South Korea, to play in an exhibition tournament
ahead of the World Cup, which takes place in South Korea from Aug. 18 to
Sept. 9.
   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the
airport, said it was aware of the situation and had assigned police
officers to investigate. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Haiti,
Shaila B. Manyam, said embassy officials were looking into the matter.
   Augustin said authorities believed adults may be involved in the
players' desertion and warned they could face criminal charges unless they
turn over the minors.
   "It seems that some adults may have been involved. If so, they are going
to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Augustin, who
declined to give further details.
   Speaking to a Haitian Creole-language radio station in New York, the
president of the Haitian Football Federation, Yves Jean-Bart, warned the
youngsters that they were hurting their futures and threatened to involve
U.S. authorities "unless these players reinstate themselves as soon as
possible."
   Jean-Bart gave no indication why the players would abandon the team. But
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and thousands of
Haitians leave the country each year to escape miserable living conditions,
violence and political instability.
   A spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Lucille Cirillo,
said the agency would help investigators in any way possible. But, she
said, immigration officials would not typically become involved in such
cases until the players had overstayed the time for which they were
admitted, which could be up to six months.
   The apparent desertions dealt a major blow to Haitian soccer, which has
been experiencing a resurgence of late after years of dismal performances.
The U17s qualified for the biennial World Cup for the first time in the
Caribbean nation's history earlier this year, while the men's team won the
Caribbean Cup for the first time in January.
   ------
   Associated Press writer Stevenson Jacobs contributed to this report from
Port-au-Prince, Haiti.