THE UNITED States is considering sending a three-ship group carrying U.S. marines to Haiti, headed by the helicopter carrier USS Saipan, as the Pentagon weighs a range of options for addressing the crisis, defence officials said yesterday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no deployment orders had been issued to send the Saipan group to Haiti from Norfolk, Virginia, but said it was one of the options currently under review.
It would take about two days for those ships to reach Haiti, one official said.
The other ships in the Amphibious Ready Group, which could carry about 2,000 Marines, are the USS Oak Hill and the USS Trenton, the officials said.
The Saipan is an amphibious assault ship that carries helicopters and AV-8B Harrier attack jets.
"They haven't received any orders and nobody has told them to go anywhere," one defence official said.
The U.S. Southern Command last week sent a four-member security assessment team to examine the safety of the U.S. Embassy, and on Monday sent about 50 marines to Haiti to protect the embassy and other U.S. facilities in the capital Port-au-Prince amid an armed revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
500 HAITIAN BOAT PEOPLE
Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated more than 500 Haitian boat people at a dock near the capital yesterday in an attempt to choke off a tide of people fleeing their impoverished homeland.
It was the first such mass repatriation since Haiti's uprising erupted on February 5.
The forced return underscored U.S. President George W. Bush's determination not to allow the rebellion to lead to an exodus of Haitians, despite pleas from human rights groups and three Florida Democratic lawmakers to allow them refuge.
The would-be refugees were left on the dock on the southern outskirts of the capital where looters, car hijackers and militant supporters of Haiti's beleaguered president were running amok.
Most of the Haitians there were 537, including babies said they had left because of grinding poverty in Haiti, not because of political motivations or fear of being swept up in the three-week-old uprising, which has claimed more than 70 lives.
* Compiled from reports from Reuters and Associated Press.
