US proposes full embargo against Haiti

THE United States asked the United Nations on Friday for a total trade embargo on Haiti and sanctions on Haiti's military for rejecting democracy.

US diplomats said they were sending copies of the proposed resolution to the other 14 Security Council members and hoped for adoption this week. The council had earlier imposed an oil and arms embargo on Haiti. The new sanctions would ban all trade except food and medicine.

Haitian Army chief Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, his chief of staff, Philippe Biamphy, and the Port-au-Prince police chief, Lt. Col. Michel Francois, would have 15 days to resign from office or leave Haiti to avert the new embargo.

In a US policy shift, the proposal drops earlier references to steps required of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It lists his return and restoring democracy as goals, but sets no timetable.

Meanwhile, the military on Friday turned back a UN team trying to investigate reports of killings and burned houses in a northern village. Up to 3,000 people have been killed in political violence since the Army overthrew Mr. Aristide in September 1991.