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September 15, 1994 - Image 5

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The Michigan Daily, 1994-09-15

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The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 15, 1994-5

10 Preparing for Invasion
U.S. drops propaganda leaflets on Haiti
Clinton steps up pressure on Haiti's
military leaders to abandon power Oce|||Atlantic' - IS.|

The Washington Post
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -
Stepping up the psychological pres-
sure on Haiti's de-facto military gov-
ernment, the United States dropped 2
million propaganda leaflets over this
city before dawn announcing the re-
turn of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
Another plane showered 1 million
leaflets onto the cities of Cap-Haitien
and Les Cayes about the same time of
the Port-au-Prince drop, the Reuter
news service reported.
In an effort to force Haiti's mili-
tary rulers to step aside and allow
Aristide's return, the United States
has sent two aircraft carriers with
several thousand troops, along with
helicopters and sophisticated weap-
ons, toward Haiti.
President Clinton has said he will
use force if necessary to remove the
military, and prepared to to deliver an
address on Haiti tonight.
The military overthrew Aristide
in a bloody coup on Sept. 30, 1991.
Aristide, a populist priest, was the
nation's first elected president. Many
allies of the military are still hoping

army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul
Cedras will resign so that an armed
invasion can be averted, but such a
move is viewed here as unlikely.
U.S. officials said measures such
as dropping the leaflets, flying over
the capital, having ships pass in full
view and flying Blackhawk helicop-
ters just offshore are all designed to
step up pressure on the military lead-
ers and show them that the United
States, after months of threats and
saber-rattling, is prepared to follow
through if force is needed.
On one side of the leaflets, a smil-
ing Aristide stands by the Haitian
flag. On the other, written in Creole,
the paper says: "The sun of democ-
racy, the light of justice, the warmth
of reconciliation, with the return of
President Aristide."
These leaflets are designed to un-
derscore the determination of the gov-
ernment to bring about the return of
Aristide, said U.S. Embassy spokes-
man Stan Schrager. They are also
intended to briefly,keynote the ben-
efits of a restored democracy - jus-
tice and reconciliation, he said.
Reconciliation is being stressed

AP

AP

by Aristide and the United States, in
hopes that the message will help pre-
vent acts of revenge against the mili-
tary. Aristide supporters here said they
are confident that such acts, if they
occur, would be extremely limited
and that Aristide would continue to
stress the need to let the judicial sys-
tem, not private citizens, seek justice.
Those opposing Aristide's return say
they fear widespread mob violence.
But the leaflets did not blanket
this city. For example, residents
of Cite Soleil, the sprawling slum
by the port, said they had not seen
any.
In the slum area of Carfour, resi-

dents heard the plane and dashed out-
side to grab the papers. But residents
told reporters that after reading the
message, they either threw the leaf-
lets out or burned them because they
feared reprisals from the army or its
civilian allies if caught with them..
Late yesterday afternoon, the gov-
ernment announced a ban on trans-
portation on major roadways from 7
p.m. to 7 a.m.
Despite the increased pressure
from Washington, the capital remains
calm. Markets were open in Cite
Soleil, and several small boats from
other parts of the island were unload-
ing sugar cane and other produce.

AP PHOTO
A man walks down a street littered with pro-Aristide propaganda
dropped by American aircraft in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, yesterday.

HAITI
Continued from page 1
of stepped-up administration rhetoric and is
further indication that an invasion could come
next week - perhaps as early as Tuesday -
well before the mid-October time frame offi-
cials once hinted at.
That message now is being emphasized
from all corners of the administration in what
appears to be an exercise of high-stakes psy-
chological warfare to convince the Haitian
leaders that time is rapidly running out.
"There is no point in going any further
with the presentpolicy. The time has come for
them to go, one way or another," Clinton said.
In the interview, a transcript of which was
released by the White House, Clinton made a
four-part case for the invasion, using the pho-
tos that were also released to the media to
portray the brutality of the current regime. He
said the military leaders were responsible for
3000 political murders since they took power
in a coup against President Jean-Bertrand

Aristide three years ago this month.
He blamed the military for the deaths of
orphans, church people and others, and ac-
cused them of using rape as apolitical weapon.
That kind of brutality, he said, will create
new waves of Haitian refuges beyond the
14,000 now held at Guantanamo in Cuba.
John Shattuck, the assistant secretary of
state for human rights, described a "pervasive
climate of fear" and outlined numerous ex-
amples of atrocities.
In yesterday's interview, Clinton also ar-
gued that the United States' post-Cold War
responsibilities include leadership in its own
hemisphere. He said that regional leaders had
warned him that if the military regime was
allowed to continue in Haiti, "democracy
elsewhere will be more fragile."
The United States, Clinton said, "must not
be in a position to walk away from a situation
like this in our own back yard."
Finally, Clinton said, the credibility of the
United States and of the international com-
munity are at stake because of two actions: his
threat to use force to remove the military

leadership and the United Nations' authoriza-
tion of such force in a resolution in July.
Summing up his own case, Clinton said that
the Haitian situation is one "where the entire
world community has spoken on a matter in our
back yard involving horrible human rights vio-
lations, the threat of serious immigration dislo-
cation in the United States, the destabilization of
democracy in our hemisphere and the total
fracturing of the ability of the world community
to conduct business in the post-Cold War era.
Those are the things that are at stake here. And
it seems to me that we have literally exhausted
every available alternative."
Clinton would not discuss whether he has
set or would set a deadline by which the
military leaders must leave or face military
action, but Defense Secretary William J. Perry
said yesterday that is an option. Other offi-
cials said there had been strong interagency
opposition to imposing a public deadline be-
cause it might be used by the military regime
and its supporters to eliminate known backers
of Aristide between the deadline and the inva-
sion.

LOSSES
Continued from page 1
tary analysts who said no reliable computer
models exist to predict the outcome of a clash
between U.S. troops and the 7,000-man ir-
regular force loyal to Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras.
Goure acknowledged that the center's projec-
tions are rough, but he said they are sound.
They are based on an analysis of casualties
suffered in the invasions of Grenada in 1983
- where 19 U.S. soldiers died and 155 were
wounded - and Panama in 1989 - where
U.S. casualties included 23 dead and 347
wounded. The analysis also takes into ac-
count estimates of the fighting and the usual
logistical problems presented by the move-
ment of troops by land, air and sea, Goure
said.
"They will be facing a force with no mili-
tary training, no firepower, no tactics, no
doctrine," said Robert Gaskin, amilitary plan-
ner in the Bush administration who now is
with Business Executives for National Secu-

rity, a policy advisory group.
ButGaskin said it will be very difficult for
U.S. troops to sort out which forces are hos-
tile. What's more, he said, the Pentagon, learn-
ing lessons from Grenada and Panama, in-
tends to aggressively guard against friendly
fire incidents.
The Haitian operation also will provide
the U.S. military with the opportunity to de-
ploy a series of new "non-lethal" weapons
along with the usual tear and pepper gasses
designed to dispersecrowds, Gaskin and Army
officials said. "They need more than blast and
frag to deal with crowds armed with stones,"
Gaskin said.
Among other things, the new arsenal, de-
scribed in the July edition of the International
Defense Review, includes high-powered la-
sers and strobe lights that disorient and nause-
ate; sticky foams that immobilize the enemy;
non-lethal 40 mm foam-rubber-tipped car-
tridges for the M203 grenade launcher; and
exploding gas that acts like the world's most
powerful flash bulb or flare to blind large
numbers of people.

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