Haitian Senate Sends Amnesty Bill to Aristide : Caribbean: Legislation leaves question of immunity for coup participants in ousted president’s hands. So far, Cedras stays put.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Haitian Parliament completed work Friday on a limited bill renewing and slightly expanding the right of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to extend political amnesty to the military forces that overthrew him three years ago.

By a 9-1 vote, with one abstention, the Haitian Senate passed a bill already approved Thursday by the Chamber of Deputies. A copy of the provision was sent by fax to Aristide for his signature, and it will become law when it is published here Monday.

The measure itself does not provide for amnesty, nor does it define who would be qualified.

In fact, it leaves the question of political amnesty entirely to the discretion of Aristide, who has said frequently that he could not give immunity to anyone involved in the September, 1991, coup who engaged in “general” or “criminal actions.”

The new measure renews amnesty powers granted the Haitian president under two existing laws and contains language that appears to increase Aristide’s latitude in exercising those powers.

Under an accord brokered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Sept. 18, the leaders of the military who overthrew Aristide agreed to give up power upon passage of “a general amnesty” or by Oct. 15, whichever comes first.

Sources close to Haitian army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras said after the Senate vote that the parliamentary action falls short of the Carter accord requirement and that he would not resign, at least not before Oct. 12, the anniversary of his appointment as head of the military.

Senior U.S. officials visiting here said they will consider the possibility of forcing Cedras to leave in the next few days on grounds that the Parliament’s vote did meet the accord’s criteria.

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Another U.S. official indicated that the measure would be used as leverage to ensure that Cedras not only retires from the military quickly but that he leaves Haiti altogether.

“It is clear that we would like to see him leave the country,” said yet another U.S. official.

Meanwhile, U.S. Army teams, backed by tanks and mounted machine guns, continued their disarmament program in Haiti. Acting on intelligence supplied by detained Cedras aide Jerry Murra, a large force raided the Citadelle Protection Agency, arresting five security guards as suspected paramilitary members and confiscating four shotguns, an M-1 rifle, an Uzi submachine gun and two pistols.

It was clear the Army’s ongoing crackdown on Haiti’s paramilitary forces, in which more than 80 suspected agents have been taken into custody, was paying off. Throughout Friday, several pro-democracy demonstrations snarled traffic in the capital but passed without incident.

With U.S. MPs heavily patrolling and protecting the route of the march, thousands of demonstrators cursed Haiti’s generals and praised Aristide and the United States as they paraded through the same district where marchers in a similar pro-democracy rally were clubbed and shot at by civilian thugs a week ago.

Some carried giant U.S. flags or portraits of the ousted president as they paused outside the Haitian army’s headquarters to kick and spit on an effigy of Cedras.

Dominique Baubrun summed up the sentiment of many in the crowd at the end of the three-hour march.

“I’m demonstrating for Aristide today,” he said. “I wasn’t pro-Aristide before. But I spent four years doing nothing--not working. Now I’m convinced he’s the only one who can save the country.”