U.S. Sweetens Deal to Get Haiti Leaders to Leave

President Clinton, warning Haiti’s military rulers that a U.S. invasion could come any day, has made a last-minute offer to spirit them out of the country into comfortable retirement abroad if they agree to step down, officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. offer to Haiti’s three top leaders includes promises of safe transportation off the island, including protection by U.S. military units, if needed, and a haven in one of several countries in South America or Europe.

“The time is at hand, and they need to leave,” Clinton told reporters in the Oval Office. “And they’re going to leave one way or another.” How they leave, he added, “is up to them.”

“If they decide to leave, we’ll help them with the arrangements,” Secretary of State Warren Christopher said on PBS television, adding that the Administration is “taking special steps” to make sure that the Haitian leaders could negotiate a deal if they choose.

Late Wednesday, Haiti’s army-installed president vowed that the regime will not back down in the face of increasing U.S. pressure.

“We will maintain the chosen direction. . . ,” Emile Jonassaint said in a news conference at the national palace in Port-au-Prince, the capital. “We have harmed no one, threatened neither the peace of America or of the world.”

A U.S. official said that secret emissaries have been sent to each of the three top officers in Haiti’s regime--Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby and Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois--to seek negotiations on the terms of their departure. But other officials refused to confirm that.

The aim of the offer is to entice one or more of the officers to leave the country voluntarily--an event that U.S. officials believe would lead to the collapse of the Haitian army and make it unnecessary for the United States to invade to accomplish its goal of reinstalling exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The United States has long said that it is willing to help the leaders step down, but in recent weeks U.S. officials have been working on ways to make the offer more attractive--to “sweeten the pot,” one aide said.

U.S. diplomats have sought offers of havens in several South American countries as well as France and Spain, where Cedras reportedly owns a vacation home. At least one South American country is said to have responded positively.

Senior officials turned down the idea of sending the officers to the neighboring Dominican Republic. “We didn’t want them that close to Haiti,” said one.

Justice Department lawyers have researched ways that the Haitian officers can be moved without subjecting them to arrest or exposing them to extradition by the Aristide government, one official said.

Officials said that the United States does not plan to pay the Haitians to leave and added that bribery should not be necessary. “They’ve already got their money hidden away” in other countries, said one official involved.

Merely getting the officers and their families safely out of Haiti could pose problems. Lower-ranking officers in the army have reportedly threatened to kill the commanders if they try to leave, so U.S. officials have had to consider “extracting” them in a rescue mission.

Several senior officials said that they do not expect that kind of action to be necessary. Nevertheless, in case some kind of covert operation is needed, Clinton recently sent Congress a secret intelligence “finding” notifying them of the possibility, officials said.

A key part of the plan, one aide said, is that the United States is offering each of the three top officers a separate deal--in the hope that at least one will accept.

The result would be a split in the regime’s leadership that officials hope could lead to the army’s collapse.

“We’re going to leave no stone unturned to give (Cedras) an opportunity to make that decision, which is the right decision,” Christopher said on PBS.

But he acknowledged that there has been no clear indication yet that Cedras, Biamby or Francois might leave.

Clinton, in an interview with four news agency reporters, sought to press the message that his patience has run out after three years of diplomatic attempts to restore Aristide, who was elected in 1990 and ousted by the army in 1991.

“We have literally exhausted every available alternative, and the time has come for those people to get out,” Clinton said. “They can still leave. They do not have to push this to a confrontation.”

Clinton will address the nation on the issue at 6 p.m. PDT today, and aides said that the televised speech will be an ultimatum to the Haitian leaders to step down.

Clinton has not decided whether to give them a specific deadline for leaving, they said. Administration officials have been debating whether such a public deadline will help push the Haitians out or, conversely, stiffen their resolve to stay.

During the interview, Clinton held up grisly photographs of the corpses of murdered Haitian dissidents and said he is “very angry” at the military regime’s conduct.

“I think that, when the American people know the facts of this, they will be supportive,” he said.

”. . . I know the timing is unpopular. I know the whole thing is unpopular. But I believe it is the right thing,” he said.

In a preview of his television speech, Clinton spelled out four reasons why the United States should intervene in Haiti: to stop human rights abuses, to prevent another exodus of Haitian refugees, to help democracy take root throughout the Western Hemisphere and to show that the United States will keep its promises.

Clinton refused to say when an invasion might come. But the White House announced that he will cut short a planned visit to Los Angeles this weekend, a switch that increased speculation that military action is near.

Clinton plans to attend a Democratic Party fund-raising event in Los Angeles on Sunday. He was originally scheduled to remain until Monday.

As the President spoke, U.S. Navy ships loaded with Army soldiers and Marines continued toward Haiti, and Air Force planes assembled at bases in Puerto Rico and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As tensions increased Wednesday over the crisis, the Dwight D. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier with the Army’s 10th Mountain Light Infantry Division troops aboard, left Norfolk, Va., headed for Haitian waters.

The America, another aircraft carrier capable of carrying up to 2,000 Special Forces troops, was off the north Florida coast on its way to the region.

A third vessel, the amphibious command ship Mount Whitney, is to leave today. It will serve as the command and control center for any military operation and will be headquarters for Army Lt. Gen. Henry Hugh Shelton. As commander of the 18th Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, N.C., Shelton would be the top U.S. military leader directing U.S. forces in Haiti.

Defense Secretary William J. Perry, asked at the Pentagon on Wednesday morning about more troop movements, indicated that U.S. invasion troops will be ready “very soon” if the military dictatorship in Port-au-Prince does not acquiesce and step down.

In Haiti, two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters flew over Port-au-Prince, and low-flying U.S. airplanes dropped thousands of leaflets bearing Aristide’s photograph and a promise of his return.

The military government’s Ministry of the Interior and Defense declared a partial curfew from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m., banning driving on main roads as well as departures of boats and planes.

Times staff writer Richard A. Serrano contributed to this report.

The U.S. Buildup

Administration officials have said that up to 30 warships and military cargo vessels, including the aircraft carriers Eisenhower and America, will be ready to launch an attack as early as next week.

ON THE WAY

The Eisenhower (aircraft carrier)

Arrives in Haiti: This weekend

Carrying: 50 attack and transport helicopters; up to 2,000 Army troops from the 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Drum, N.Y.

The America (aircraft carrier shown below)

Arrives in Haiti: This weekend

Carrying: Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division. It will be ferrying U.S. Special Forces, many of whom will probably be helicoptered onto the carrier before any invasion.

Mount Whitney (amphibious command ship)

Arrives in Haiti: Next week

Carrying: Equipment and personnel to serve as nerve center for the assault.

Cargo ships (up to 13)

Arrive in Haiti: Next week

Carrying: Equipment ranging from tanks to cranes and landing craft.

In the Atlantic

The Wasp (amphibious assault ship)

Carrying: 1,800 Marines and 1,080 sailors

The Nashville (amphibious transport dock)

Carrying: 400 sailors

In the Golfe de la Gonave

The Maritime Interdiction Force, comprised of seven U.S. ships, continues to maintain the sanctions near the mouth of Port-au-Prince. It includes:

* The Comte de Grasse, a destroyer with 340 aboard

* The Aubrey Fitch, a frigate with 200 aboard

* The Oliver Hazard Perry, a frigate with 200 aboard

* The Clifton Sprague, a frigate with 200 aboard

* The Hurricane, a patrol boat with 28 aboard

* The Monsoon, a patrol boat with 28 aboard

* The Savannah, an oiler with 460 aboard

Making Presence Felt

* Two Army Blackhawk helicopters buzzed the capital.

* United States moved a warship into Port-au-Prince bay.

* Low-flying planes dropped American propaganda leaflets in Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haitien and Les Cayes

In Puerto Rico

Multinational peacekeepers have begun a compressed training schedule that will include 16- to 18-hour days, Green Beret trainers said Wednesday.

Sources: U.S. Navy, Times staff and wire reports

Tuning In to Clinton Speech

President Clinton’s address on the Haiti situation will be televised live at 6 tonight by CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox Broadcasting Co., CNN, C-SPAN and CNBC. Radio listeners can hear the address on KCRW-FM (89.9), KNX-AM (1070) and KFWB-AM (980).