U.N.’s Plan to Restore Democracy ‘Dead,’ Defiant Haiti Rightists Say

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  As Washington increased its pressure on army rulers by adding 650 U.S. Marines to a naval blockade of Haiti, defiant rightists opposed to restoring democracy Monday declared a U.N. peace plan “completely dead.”

The Marines are aboard a Navy amphibious assault ship that has joined 11 other ships from the United States, Canada and Britain. They are enforcing a U.N.-imposed oil and weapons embargo aimed at forcing the Haitian military to allow the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Marines would help evacuate Americans if their safety were threatened.

The U.N. plan for restoring Aristide “is completely dead right now,” said Emanuel Constant, head of the army-backed Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti.

However, in Washington, White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said Monday that the Clinton Administration still expects that Aristide will be returned to power.

The United Nations has called on all parties to meet here Wednesday to find ways to resolve the crisis. However, hopes for a meeting dimmed Monday when officials said none of the parties had officially responded to invitations sent over the weekend.