Clinton Targets Haiti’s Elite With New Curbs : Sanctions: Flights to U.S., financial transactions are banned in effort to pressure supporters of the junta.

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton tightened sanctions against Haiti on Friday with a ban on commercial flights and financial transactions between the two countries--steps likely to punish Haiti’s prosperous elite but to have little direct effect on its ruling junta.

Supplementing measures enacted nearly a month ago, Clinton announced a ban on commercial flights beginning June 25. The move is expected to halt at least two-thirds of scheduled air trips to and from Haiti.

The prohibition on transactions is intended to suspend wire transfers of cash, trade financing and even the carrying of cash from the United States to the Caribbean nation.

“The message is simple: Democracy must be restored, the coup must not endure,” Clinton said at a White House briefing.

Shortly afterward, the State Department said it is withdrawing embassy dependents and some employees from Haiti.

It urged private U.S. citizens who are not affiliated with humanitarian programs to leave as soon as possible.

State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said about 120 Americans will leave and 80 will stay.

She said the action is being taken because the unstable situation has the potential for random violence.

The flight ban announced by Clinton includes exemptions for humanitarian missions that have been organized to support the feeding of about 1 million Haitians.

Similarly, to enable Haitian Americans to continue to support their families in Haiti, the sanctions will permit them to send $50 a month.

Since members of the Haitian military have already had their travel restricted and assets frozen, the new sanctions are directed at a Haitian civilian elite that is assumed to support the junta.

“The emphasis here is . . . to apply pressure to those groups that are supporting the coup leadership,” said William H. Gray III, Clinton’s special envoy to Haiti.

But observers in the United States and Haiti said that many of those Haitians have already moved their assets to third countries, such as the Cayman Islands. Many have also stockpiled goods on the island for their own survival and comfort.

The travel ban is likely to come as a shock, at least at first, for the better-off Haitians who continue to travel, observers said.

One Haitian businessman predicted that the flight ban will have a “deep psychological impact” on Haitians who “have developed the idea that they have a right to go to Miami for recreation and to do business.”

But he and others were skeptical that the ban will create pressure that would move the military to give up control.

“They are in this to the finish,” the businessman said.

Ernest Preeg, a former U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said it is doubtful that such pressure will prompt the army to give up power.

“They’re desperate. If it all falls apart, their lives will be at risk,” said Preeg, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Despite such outside skepticism, U.S. officials emphasized their belief that the steps would work, if only indirectly.

Gray said that while sanctions “don’t solve any crisis,” he believes that they will “create the kind of atmosphere where we can have a diplomatic breakthrough and a solution where the coup leaders will step down.”

White House officials recently have played down the likelihood of a U.S. invasion to restore exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted by a military coup in September, 1991.

But by declaring that they fully expect these steps to force change, U.S. officials have preserved the option of later declaring that the failure of a measured response had compelled them to turn to a military solution.

Gray said that recent efforts to tighten the economic embargo are showing signs of success. An increase in gasoline prices, he said, showed that efforts to close down the smuggling from the Dominican Republic are beginning to take hold.

U.S. officials said they did not impose the flight ban immediately in order to allow those wanting to leave Haiti to do so in orderly fashion.

American Airlines, one of the chief U.S. air carriers to Haiti, has added extra flights.

About a third of all commercial flights to and from Haiti will not be directly affected by the U.S. suspension. Most of these are by Air France, the rest by Canadian and Dutch airlines.

Canada said Friday that it will suspend commercial flights June 25. Gray said U.S. officials expect that the other countries will consider whether to follow suit.

Gray said the exemption for small amounts of cash will provide a lifeline for people abroad who help support family and friends in Haiti.

“When you’re talking about a society where annual income is about $350, ($50) is a significant amount,” he said.

He said the United States intends to continue its humanitarian aid to Haiti--now totaling about $75 million--though Haitian thugs have seized about $12 million of it.

Air cargo service and charter flights to and from Haiti are already prohibited under a U.N. trade embargo that took effect May 21. A U.N. oil embargo has been in effect since last fall.

Last Tuesday, the Organization of American States banned commercial flights and financial transactions between its members and Haiti.

Preeg, the former ambassador, said the flight ban will also make life significantly riskier for the 10,000 foreigners, many of them charity workers, who remain in Haiti.

Richter reported from Washington and Freed from Miami.