SUFFER THE CHILDREN

By TAMMERLIN DRUMMOND/GUANTANAMO BAY

At Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuban refugees cavort happily on the beach in a scene reminiscent of a Club Med. They have good reason to celebrate: soon they will be flying off to freedom in the U.S. Meanwhile, less than a mile away, more than 200 Haitian children lounge listlessly under drab green tents, seeking refuge from the harsh midday sun. Camp Nine, their home since last June, is a desolate patch of cactus-filled desert where the only sign of life is an occasional banana rat or iguana. A fence encircles the camp, which is guarded by American soldiers. The children, many of them orphans, have languished in this dusty purgatory for nearly a year. Despite the efforts of immigrants' rights groups, only a few of the Haitian minors -- who range in age from infants to teenagers, including some who are pregnant -- have been allowed to enter the U.S.

"When I heard that the U.S. was going to let 15,000 Cubans into the country and leave 450 Haitians in Guantanamo, I felt like someone had stuck me with a knife," says a 17-year-old boy. "This is a very cruel situation." (U.S. military officials will not allow the children to be quoted by name.) When Attorney General Janet Reno announced the new Cuban policy on May 3, dozens of furious Haitian teens first tried to organize a hunger strike with the younger children, then went on a rampage, pelting soldiers with rocks and setting tents on fire. No one was seriously injured in the melee, but a handful of soldiers and children ended up with cuts and bruises.

Earlier this year some of the children attempted suicide by drinking bleach. Marleine Bastien, a Miami social worker, counseled a desperate 16-year-old boy who tried to hang himself from a tree branch in February. He survived only because the branch snapped under his weight. "Many of these children have expressed suicidal ideas," says Bastien. "Are we going to have to wait for a fatality before something is done?''

During the rafter crisis last summer, more than 20,000 Haitians and 30,000 Cubans were intercepted at sea and delivered to hastily erected camps in Guantanamo. Among the refugees were 321 unaccompanied Cuban children, all of whom have since have been paroled to the U.S. But of the 356 unaccompanied Haitian children who ended up at Gitmo, only 22 have been admitted to the U.S., because they needed medical attention or had a parent already in the States. Since the island has officially returned to democratic rule, immigration officials say, Haitians don't qualify for humanitarian parole. Some of these children were orphaned in Haiti, and set to sea alone or with friends; others saw their parents drown. Because of the violence and deprivation they have experienced, many of the kids are terrified of going back to Haiti. Yet the official U.S. policy for these children is to locate relatives in Haiti and send the kids to them. So far, 60 Haitian children have been returned. But last week Florida Rural Legal Services released a report condemning the repatriations. "The claim that what is being done is in the best interest of the children is a farce," said Niels Frenzen, a public-interest lawyer who helped track down some of the returnees and found that many were homeless or living in squalor with strangers. "There is only one humane solution to this problem. Close down the camp and accept the generosity of the families and agencies willing to care for these young people, just as we have done for Cuban children."

According to Florida Legal Services, all but 40 of the Haitian children have U.S. sponsors lined up. "We told the State Department months ago that we had foster parents to sponsor these children," said Deacon Chris Baumann, spokesman of the U.S. Catholic Conference. Yet the children's advocates report that even in cases where they have located U.S. relatives, the State Department has refused to grant them entry. Helene Charles, a 36-year-old Haitian living in Fort Lauderdale, says she has been trying for months to obtain a visa for her 14-year-old son Kissene. She left him behind in Haiti with her mother, but she became ill and could no longer care for him. Kissene got on a raft with some friends, who got word to his mother that he was at Guantanamo.

U.S. authorities will say only that all cases are under review. "You can't just move them lock, stock and barrel to the United States and separate them from their families forevermore," said a State Department official. "You have to find out where each child's family is and go and look for the family." That can be a long, difficult process, says the State Department, which hopes most of the children will be released from the camp by early July.

"We just want to get out as fast as possible and go elsewhere," says a 17-year-old boy who has a cousin in the U.S. "We are not criminals, but we are living in a prison."