U.S. Pulls Troop Ship From Haiti : Caribbean: Americans, U.N. are denied assurances of safety after violent protests against landing. Clinton to seek renewed sanctions against military rulers.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  After two days of violent protests orchestrated by the Haitian army, an American military cargo ship carrying about 200 unarmed engineers and trainers was ordered out of Haitian waters Tuesday, further unraveling the process designed to restore democracy here.

The Harlan County was ordered to sail for the U.S. Marine base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after U.S. and U.N. officials were denied assurances of safety for the ship and the American and Canadian troops aboard by Haitian army chief Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras.

The 560-foot tank landing ship was seen sailing out of Port-au-Prince Bay about 3 p.m. Military sources said that about 50 American military personnel already in Port-au-Prince as advance planners also would be withdrawn.

A second U.S. ship, the Fairfax County, which was set to sail for Haiti on Tuesday afternoon, was ordered to remain at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, Va.

Officials said neither vessel contained combat troops.

In ordering the pullout of the Harlan County, President Clinton said that Haiti’s military rulers were “reneging” on a July 3 agreement to yield power and allow the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by the end of October. Clinton said he will seek reimposition of international sanctions against the Haitian regime in hopes that increased economic hardship will persuade opponents of democratic rule to relent.

Clinton also said that he will not allow American participation in a multinational effort to train the Haitian police and military and rebuild the impoverished island’s infrastructure as long as Cedras threatens international troops.

“There’s no point in our even trying to land there until we can do what we were asked to do as advisers,” Clinton said before boarding a helicopter for a speechmaking trip to North Carolina. “The time has come for the people who are clinging to their last gasp of power to honor the agreement. They made the agreement. They’ve got to honor it.”

It was a near-total economic embargo of Haiti, including the banning of all petroleum sales, imposed by the United Nations earlier this year that forced Cedras to sign the agreement to allow the return of Aristide, the radical Roman Catholic priest whom Cedras overthrew in a bloody coup on Sept. 30, 1991. Only seven months earlier, Aristide had overwhelmingly won the country’s first truly democratic election.

However, not all diplomats here think a total embargo, which was suspended after Cedras signed the agreement last July, should be reinstated at this time. They believe that a full embargo would do too much damage to Haiti’s impoverished population and that selective sanctions would do more to punish only those responsible for impeding the democratization effort. Shortly after the Harlan County turned and sailed from Haiti, special U.N. envoy Dante Caputo prepared a recommendation for U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali calling for a reimposition of a limited but worldwide embargo against Haiti.

The Caputo proposal, which U.N. officials said would automatically be presented for Security Council approval, would not cut off oil shipments--a tactic widely credited with forcing the military into earlier negotiations--but would target specific individuals, including the freezing of bank accounts internationally.

However, Caputo drafted his plan before a White House representative said Washington would back a renewed oil embargo, and U.N. officials here declined to discuss the differing approaches.

As late as Sunday night, many diplomats here had been confident that the agreement reached on Governors Island in New York on July 3 would follow a schedule calling for the docking of the Harlan County on Monday and would end Oct. 30 with the return of Aristide.

Cedras is supposed to resign Friday, thus clearing the way for Aristide to name a new military high command.

The optimism of the diplomats died with the arrival of the ship early Monday morning. The vessel was greeted by a throng of at least 150 screaming protesters organized and directed openly by Haitian police under the control of Cedras’ army.

Diplomats said the demonstrators, called attaches here, were part of an effort by the military to thwart the July agreement, which Cedras signed with Aristide.

Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) said here after a tumultuous three-hour meeting with Cedras that the developments of the past two days had jeopardized the agreement.

Monday’s demonstration ended with American Charge d’Affaires Vicki Huddleston, the ranking U.S. diplomat here, having to flee after her car was violently attacked.

After a night of drunken celebration, including frequent shootings and at least two deaths, the mob continued to occupy the port area Tuesday, harassing journalists and international officials who arrived at the scene.

Most of the port and downtown areas of Port-au-Prince were empty, and shops closed in anticipation of more violence.

That came at midday Tuesday, when groups of men wearing civilian clothes drove by the National Assembly, firing pistols and assault rifles at the structure.

Graham told reporters after his meeting with Cedras that when he asked the general if he would guarantee the safety of the Americans, “he did not make those assurances.”

The troops on the Harlan County, which included about a dozen Canadian soldiers, were the first contingent of what was to be an estimated 600-man force provided for in the New York agreement. Their role was to be limited to training and advising a new and reformed army, as well as repairing and rebuilding roads and constructing other military facilities.

The one aspect of the accord that some diplomats think will be carried out is Cedras’ resignation. Graham said that when he asked Cedras about leaving office, “his answer was: ‘I have always respected what I sign.’ ”

But the Oct. 15 resignation date was reached in an unwritten understanding, thus leaving Cedras room to maneuver.

Some diplomats say other members of the military, including the powerful head of the Port-au-Prince police, Michel-Joseph Francois, have made it clear they consider the July 3 agreement to apply only to the general and not to them.

“There is a growing ‘so what?’ element to Cedras’ leaving,” said one international official. “The others are perfectly capable of ruining everything here.”

Haiti was to have been a key test of the Clinton Administration’s central foreign policy goal--the “enlargement” of democracy around the globe. While Clinton remains committed to the restoration of democracy in Haiti, a senior White House official said, U.S. efforts to promote the agreement have in effect been suspended until Cedras and his cronies allow it to go forward.

Clinton tried to draw a clear distinction between the role of U.S. troops in Somalia and the planned mission for the U.S. military in Haiti.

The situation in Haiti is “not peacekeeping,” Clinton said. “This is about restoration of democracy. So we’re going back to the sanctions until those people do what they said they would do.”

An Administration official said that Washington is looking for four concrete signs before it would be willing to introduce troops:

* Cedras and Francois must resign by Friday.

* Police training must accelerate.

* Military and police must bring the attaches under control.

* The Haitian government must enact legislation to officially separate the police from the military.

Times staff writers John M. Broder, Art Pine and Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.

* U.S. POLICY THREATENED: Pullback in Haiti clouds goal of extending democracy. A9

A Second Somalia?

Witnesses say gunmen have threatened to turn Haiti into a “second Somalia” for U.S. troops. Besides turning away a U.N. support force, gunmen have roamed through downtown Port-au-Prince, threatening schoolchildren and ordering drivers off the roads.