The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 9, 1994 - 13 U.S. steps up plans for Haiti invasion AP PHOTO Cuba.Leandro Gomez pulls his brother Alexandro in a box yesterday afternoon inside the camp housing Cuban refugees in the Guantanamo Naval Air Base in Washingo Havana to resume talks on rfees seeking asym in The Washington Post WASHINGTON - The United States, stepping up its planning for not only the invasion of Haiti but also its aftermath, has begun recruiting Haitians now exiled at Guantanamo Bay to be part of a future, temporary Haitian civilian police force, admin- istration officials said yesterday. Senior officials said an intergov- ernmental task force has been assigned the project of building an interim po- lice force to be installed almost im- mediately after a U.S. invasion. In a second phase that will begin soon afterwards, a permanent force would be recruited and trained under a pro- gram being developed by the Justice Department. Preparations for the invasion it- self went forward Thursday with a Pentagon announcement that seven giant cargo ships were being readied in ports around the country to trans- port heavy equipment for possible use by U.S. forces. The ships, each of which is about 700 feet long, rank among the biggest in the nation's ready reserve fleet and normally are used to carry tanks, trucks, track vehicles and other weighty equipment. The sizeable transport capacity being activated surprised even some Pentagon officials, in light of wide- spread predictions that an invasion of Haiti would meet little resistance and could be managed quickly. But sources familiar with the contingency plans said significant forces would be available and used if the United States invades, possibly with more than 15,000 troops involved. Administration officials still held out the possibility that Haiti's mili- tary leaders, watching the public un- folding of invasion plans, will finally decide to depart Haiti-but no U.S. official expressed much optimism yesterday that that would happen. One senior official said a "drop- dead date" by which Haiti's military leaders must leave has not been de- cided by President Clinton, but that the "window" is between the last week of September and mid-October. Pen- tagon officials said another week or two is needed to move all the desired equipment and forces into place. Under the U.S. scenario for a post- invasion Haiti, an interim police force made up of Haitians now in the mili- tary there - assisted by as many as 500 Haitians as translators, aides and helpers from Guantanamo Bay, Mi- ami, New York and elsewhere - would arrive "within days" of the actual invasion to provide basic secu- rity in the country. The Haitians at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were taken there after U.S. ships picked them off when they tried to flee Haiti in boats. Police "monitors" from the United States and several other nations would oversee the interim force to prevent human rights violations and other "unacceptable behavior" by members of the current military selected to be part of the interim force. Officials said Haiti's exiled president Jean- Bertrand Aristide, who would be re- stored to power in the U.S. invasion, and others have lists of "known badl guys"; but essentially elements of tlh' current military would be the nucleus of the new force. The Clinton administration, with memories still strong of problems in the U.S. military operation in Soma- lia, is putting emphasis on providing security in Haiti once its military lead- ers are out of the country, either vol- untarily or through an invasion. Two senior State Department of- ficials -AlexanderF. Watson, assis- tant secretary for inter-American af- fairs, and Thomas E. McNamara, act- ing assistant secretary for politico- military affairs - have been visiting several countries in the region to per- suade them to provide police moni- tors for the post-invasion period. Replacing the interim force would be what the United States envisions as a permanent civilian force of 4,000 recruited in Haiti, some of the interim force and some now, trained by the Justice Department at a new "police academy" to be immediately estab- lished after the invasion. Its graduating classes would gradually replace the interim group, under the plan. The United States, one official put it, "does not want its troops to be perceived as the cop on the beat." On invasion planning itself, Pen- tagon spokesman Col. Doug Kennett disclosed the activation of the reserve cargo ships and called it "a prudent step." He said Deputy Defense Secre- tary John Deutch had signed the acti- vation order Wednesday night. The Washington Post WASHINGTON - Pivotal talks with Cuba over stopping the refugee flow are scheduled to resume this morning in New York, with a deal hinging on whether Fidel Castro has dropped demands for easing the trade ban with his island, U.S. officials said. No important differences persist over the numbers of Cubans that the United States would permit to immi- grate annually, a guaranteed mini- mum of 20,000 a year, a U.S. official said. The special program is unprec- edented in U.S. immigration. The administration is also willing to concede that special consideration ought to be given to a backlog of Cubans built up during the past de- cade who have tried to migrate le- gally through the American Interests Section in Havana. Although no number has been specified for speeding their entry, the United States will take steps to "work down" the backlog, a U.S. official said. Cuba puts the number at about 140,000. In return for the migration pack- age, the United States expects Castro to crack down on dissatisfied Cubans trying to flee the Communist-ruled island. Talks were broken off Wednes- day to give chief Cuban negotiator Ricardo Alarcon time to consult in Havana. Alarcon returned to New York Thursday night. "The question is whether Alarcon is coming with something, or whether we'll have to make the hard decision on breaking off the talks," a U.S. official said. Ending the exodus would permit Clinton time to decide what to do with more than 25,000 Cuban refugees locked behind. barbed wire at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Panama. It would also clear the Caribbean decks for a possible invasion of Haiti. It would be awkward to be picking up refugees in one spot while sending Marines ashore in another, particu- larly if Castro provoked larger num- bers to leave. A U.S. official described the dif- ferences over the embargo issue as based on something, "the Cubans want politically and something we can't deal with politically." Last month, Clinton tightened the trade embargo by banning cash gifts . from Cuban exiles to their families in Cuba and restricting visits by exiles to family. The measures were taken to ce- ment the support of anti-Castro Cu- ban Americans for Clinton's policy of barring Cuban refugees from reach- ing the United States. Cuba argues that because the measures were put in place in re- sponse to Castro's decision to let Cubans freely take to sea, it should be revoked once Castro reverses his de- cision. Revocation would also be a sign thatPresident Clinton is breaking free of the influence of the anti-Castro lobby, which Castro refers to as a mafia. Alarcon also asked for the United States to muzzle private radio sta- tions who broadcast anti-Castro mes- sages to Cuba; some American offi- cials say the obvious constitutional prohibitions on interfering with speech apply. - -. I 4P44 v-% 4s -W Ar A is -4 .-% . .e dSouth Dakota's Miss America hopeful draws tire tor .Minister denies fear of . T~ new war in Rwanda plans to penorm Native American dance in pageant Los Angeles Times KIGALI, Rwanda - Defense Minister Paul Kagame yesterday downplayed a U.N. official's conclu- sion that guerrilla warfare might soon erupt in Rwanda, but said his troops mustquickly moveinto aformer"safe haven" for refugees to ensure that it doesn't happen. Asked if armed men from the former government now in exile in Zaire were infiltrating border areas ofRwanda, as the top United Nations official here indicated this week, Kagame said: "We have been seeing some funny move- ments, especially around the border with Burundi, and then, of course, the area inside (the country)." Soldiers and members of the militia of the former hard-line Hutu govern- ment and ruling party - defeated in a civil war that ended in July - "have been moving freely around, terrorizing the civilians," Kagame said. "We have been seeing such activities and have been concerned. We need to check that out and bring it under control." Kagame, who guided the young soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front to victory, is believed by many to now be this African country's top leader. In a report this week to United Nations headquarters in New York, Shahryar M. Khan, special representa- tive to the U.N. secretary-general in Rwanda, said that in the period Aug. 29-Sept. 4 young men carrying large stocks of weapons and rations had been spotted infiltrating the country's southwest, a remote and forested area the French had turned into a sanctu- ary for fleeing Rwandan refugees during the summer. These are "classic preparations for guerrilla war," Khan said, noting how favorable the terrain would be for in- surgency operations. U.N. peace-keep- ing officers say it is screened from aerial reconnaissance by thick foliage. The high-ranking U.N. official gave no hint of the size of the infiltra- tions, but Kagame maintained that "they're on a limited scale so far, not a big problem." Returnees from the defeated army have "just been responsible for iso- lated incidents," he said. "It hasn't yet gone to high levels of threat." But the fact that hostile and armed men are now sneaking into the country demands a prompt reaction, Kagame said. This week, Rwanda's new govern- ment for the first time sent permanent civilian administrators and soldiers into the southwest, U.N. officials reported. An estimated 480,000refugees from the ethnic Hutu majority are in the southwest, along with more than 1 million local inhabitants. Many of the refugees fear they will be victimized and subjected to reprisals by the Front's army, which is led by Tutsis, because of the nationwide massacres perpetrated by Rwanda's former gov- ernment last spring. Newsday Miss America contestant Kristi Lynn Bauer isn't circling the wagons. Despite criticism that a buckskin- clad dance Miss South Dakota in- tends to perform in preliminary com- petition at the Atlantic City, N.J., pageant is an insult to American Indi- ans, she says her show will go on. And, in effect, the Miss America pageant said yesterday that it can't tell her what to do -so do it she will, if she wants. "It's to honor the Native Ameri- can culture," said Bauer, a blue-eyed blonde from Brookings, S.D., who says she is part Indian, though she can name no Indian forebears. "I'm taking the side of cultural sensitivity, which it's important for everyone to do." But American Indian Community House Inc., a New York-based non- profit social service agency that serves Indians and acts as a communications network on national issues, disagreed yesterday. "This appropriation of native cul- ture is insensitive, unacceptable and in no way honoring native people," the group said in a statement. "Even after being told that she will be insulting American Indians and making a mockery of their spiri- tuality ... she has not changed her plans to perform a dance dressed in a buckskin dress under a tribal burial scaffold adorned with traditional ob- jects like a drum and buffalo robe for her 'talent' competition at the Miss America Pageant." But Bauer insists her performance is not insulting. She says Larry Belitz, whom she said served as a technical adviser for the movie "Dances With Wolves" and is also her adviser, asked her to perform the dance at the Atlantic City It's to honor the Native 'The issue here is you American culture. ... don't do a dance I'm taking the side of routine in a cemetery. cultural sensitivity, That's the message which It's Important for she sends. One, it's in everyone to do.' bad taste. Two, if it's - Kristi Lynn Bauer South Dakota Miss America contestant pageant. The South Dakota commissioner of Indian affairs, Francis Whitebird, also criticized Bauer. The finals of the Miss America Pageant will be televised Sept. 17. done routinely (in pageants) it may be OK to them but it's not to me.' - Whitebird Lakota Inidan and member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe IAl" SBring back 8-tracks Internet is the fastest growing source of information and services for millions of computer users. 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