a1993: Bahamas-Haiti-Boat Capsize (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By CHRIS SAUNDERS

   NASSAU, May 10 (AP) -- A 35-foot sailboat overloaded with about 100
Haitian refugees capsized Friday off the Bahamas, leaving at least three
people dead and more than two dozen missing, the U.S. Coast Guard said
Friday.
   The boat capsized 6 miles west of Great Inagua around 4 a.m. Friday, the
Coast Guard said. The island is the southernmost in the Bahamas chain and
the third largest.
   Seventy-one people were rescued, three were pronounced dead and
survivors say 26 people were still missing, the Coast Guard said.
   Craig Stubbs of the Great Inagua Police said that when he left the
rescue scene at around 8 a.m., the seas were rough with swells of more than
six feet and there were no signs of the boat or any debris.
   Two Bahamian vessels and air support from two U.S. Coast Guard HH-60
Jayhawk helicopters were helping in the rescue.
   A Coast Guard C-130 airplane from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., was also
en route to Great Inagua with medical personnel and relief supplies.
   "We are doing everything we can to rescue any survivors," said Lt. Cmdr.
Ron LaBrec, Coast Guard Seventh District public affairs officer. "This is
an extremely dangerous voyage that has resulted in many Haitian deaths in
the past."
   Little was known about the vessel except that it was poorly constructed
and overloaded.
   More than 200 are thought to have died off the Bahamas this year alone
in desperate attempts to reach the U.S. coast of Florida.
   This year, Bahamian authorities have apprehended more than 1,000 Haitian
migrants who make the dangerous journey aboard overcrowded and rickety
boats, hoping to escape Haiti's poverty and political turmoil.
   Haiti has been mired in crisis since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
party won 80 percent of seats in parliamentary elections in 2000 that the
opposition alleges were rigged.
   Hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid have been frozen
until results are revised.