Haiti on edge over new threat

SIX United States warships were ringing Haiti yesterday as supporters of its military rulers demanded the departure of white foreigners and the United Nations Security Council ordered a naval blockade.

In a broadcast directed at diplomats, aid workers and journalists, Robert Abellard, spokesman of the so-called Resistance Committee to Defend National Sovereignty, said: 'To avoid serious upheaval we must throw out white foreigners. They are dangerous to us.'

About 300 UN human- rights monitors were evacuated to the neighbouring Dominican Republic this weekend, arousing fears of further violence by the army and its supporters.

The US ships were ordered in by President Clinton on Friday to enforce the economic sanctions reimposed on Haiti by the UN on Wednesday after the collapse of international efforts to restore President Jean- Bertrand Aristide, deposed by the military in 1991.

Mr Clinton has also ordered infantry to the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a safeguard for Americans still living in Haiti.

Ambivalent America, page 12