By YVES COLON
             Herald Staff Writer

             On street corners, in barber shops and on radio talk shows, Haitians in Miami are
             enraged by the battle over Navassa, a forgotten rocky outpost that has become an
             ecological jewel with the recent discovery of unique birds and wildlife.

             The United States and Haiti both claim to own the one-square-mile island, a rich
             source of guano for American farmers a century ago. The two nations briefly
             tussled over it back then, with U.S. warships chasing away Haitian gun boats.

             On the sidelines: A California entrepreneur's recent takeover bid for Navassa and
             its precious deposits of bird droppings.

             Dormant for more than a century, the dispute was resurrected last month when 14
             scientists from the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington visited the island
             and identified 800 species of wildlife, many found nowhere else in the world. The
             U.S. Department of Interior, which manages Navassa, has threatened to use force
             to keep anyone away.

             Haitians, who say Navassa always has been part of Haiti, are furious.

             On radio talk shows, both here and in Haiti, angry callers have been denouncing
             the American government's posture as reminiscent of the ``big stick'' era in the
             Caribbean, and questioning U.S. claim on the island.

             ``Haitian kids grow up learning in their history books that Navassa is part of Haiti,''
             said Alex St. Surin, host of the one-hour daily Creole-language program Radio
             Carrefour on WLQY (1320 AM) in Miami. ``People are very emotional about it.
             The majority of people who have been calling for the past two weeks are saying
             that Navassa is ours and that the Americans are using their power to take it away
             from us.''

             Haitian Foreign Minister Fritz Longchamp jumped into the fray last week when he
             declared that ``Navassa is a part of the national territory of the Republic of Haiti.
             This is consecrated by the Constitution of Haiti.''

             U.S. Ambassador Timothy Carney at a ribbon-cutting ceremony took a swipe at
             the Haitian claim. Refreshingly frank, according to an aide, Carney said, ``The
             United States has governed the island since 1858, thus it is American territory.''
             He went on to say that Haitians would be better served by paying closer attention
             to their internal problems.

             ``What nerve,'' said Elsie Etheart, co-editor of Haiti En Marche, a weekly
             published in Miami, and co-owner of radio station Melodie 103.3 FM in
             Port-au-Prince. ``He had a lot of gall telling us what we should or should not be
             paying attention to.'' She added that Haitians accustomed to U.S. power plays in
             the Caribbean are not surprised by Washington's display of muscle, but refuse to
             be pushovers over Navassa, which is about 35 miles west of the tip of Haiti.

             ``Haitian fishermen have been fishing for lobsters on the reefs around that island for
             generations,'' Etheart said. ``Haitians in Miami are saying that the Americans must
             have discovered something more important on the island, something like uranium.''

             Mary Ellen Gilroy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, said
             three-quarters of the questions Haitian journalists ask at recent news conferences
             deal with Navassa.

             ``It's very serious for Haitians,'' she noted. ``Every constitution except the one
             written by the Marines [which occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934] mention
             that Navassa is part of Haitian territory.''

             The U.S. State Department had no comment on the dispute. ``I don't think we're
             looking at turning it over,'' said a source in the department who asked not to be
             named. ``We've owned the island for 140 years, so there has been no discussions,
             no negotiations.''

             Some Haitians, in postings on the Internet and conversations around Miami, said
             the way the dispute is being handled underlies ``a stepchild mentality that takes
             place in relationships between the U.S. and Haiti.''

             The issue generated even more heat after Gilroy said that if the Haitian government
             decides to enter Navassa without authorization from the Department of Interior,
             the United States will take this as an act of provocation.

             Lafanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has called
             for a massive demonstration at the end of the month, on the anniversary of U.S.
             troops landing in Haiti four years ago to restore Aristide to power. The protest will
             be in favor of Haitian ownership of the island and against the Americans.

             American agriculture is partly to blame for sparking the original interest in
             Navassa. Back in the 1840s and 1850s, as American farmers went looking for
             guano to spread as fertilizer on their farms, Congress -- hoping to break Peru's
             monopoly on guano -- passed the Guano Islands Act of 1856 and authorized
             enterprising American seamen to claim any abandoned or unclaimed islands with
             guano on it. Peter Duncan, a ship captain, bumped into Navassa on July 1, 1857,
             and discovered that the island contained guano -- lots of it.

             ``Navassa is a barren isle shaped like an oyster shell, about a square mile in area,
             formed of volcanic limestone and so filled with holes as to have the appearance of
             a petrified sponge,'' he wrote.

             The U.S. argument for flying the Stars and Stripes there: Navassa was abandoned
             and derelict. When Emperor Faustin I of Haiti sent gun boats to Navassa to press
             claims to the island, after he was promised a third of the proceeds from the guano
             mining, the U.S. sent warships and Faustin backed off.

             Faustin had claimed that the island was first Spanish and then French, and that with
             the French recognition of Haitian independence in 1804 the island became Haitian.

             Haiti again tried to establish its claim in 1872, but once more failed.

             Another opportunity arose in 1889, after some workers in the guano mines killed a
             supervisor. The men, all black, were brought back to the United States for trial
             and convicted, which became a cause celebre  among black people throughout the
             United States. Their lawyers appealed that Navassa was not U.S. property, which
             means that U.S. law did not apply.

             They lost. The U.S. Supreme Court declared that the island was U.S. property.

             Soon guano went the way of the buggy, and the island became uninhabited once
             more.

             As the first piece of land that ships heading north come upon after leaving the
             Panama Canal, the United States erected a warning light there and President
             Woodrow Wilson again declared the island a U.S. acquisition.

             It was under the supervision of the U.S. Coast Guard until 1997, when it was
             assigned to the Interior Department because of the rich trove of birds, along with
             two species of lizards previously thought to be extinct.

             According to the American scientists who visited the island in July, the waters
             surrounding the rocky cliffs may hold some of the most pristine coral reefs in the
             Caribbean.

             But together with the islands of La Gonave, La Tortue, Les Cayemittes and l'Ile a
             Vache, Haitians say that La Navase, as they call it in French, is one of the most
             significant offshore territories of the Haitian mainland. In 1989, the former military
             government dispatched amateur radio operators there in an army helicopter. They
             planted a Haitian flag on the ground and erected a pillar asserting Haitian
             sovereignty. Then for a couple of hours, they broadcast messages from ``Radio
             Free Navassa.''

             Meanwhile, there's entrepreneur Bill Warren, who says the island belongs to
             neither Haiti nor the United States. Warren, who wants to mine the guano, says the
             U.S. government is trying to stop him from mining the bird droppings, as organic
             fertilizer is making a comeback in the United States.

             Warren, of Alpine, Calif., sued Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Secretary of
             State Madeleine K. Albright in U.S. District Court after the federal government
             refused to set a bond price for the purchase of the island.

             Navassa is open to property claims, Warren said. He cites the case of W.S.
             Carter, who asked the State Department for permission to buy Navassa in 1905.
             The department at the time said it ``possesed no territorial sovereignty'' over the
             island.

             Warren, soured by the U.S. position, is looking for heirs of the original claimants,
             and searching maps and documents that might help him land the mother lode of
             guano on Navassa.

             No matter what treasures are found on Navassa, Nadine Patrice of Operation
             Greenleaves in Miami said the island should belong to Haiti, despite what the U.S.
             government or Bill Warren say about it.

             ``They should help us maintain it,'' said Patrice, executive director of the group,
             which promotes and works on reforestation projects in Haiti. ``We might not
             know everything we need to know, but we live in a global world and we should
             help each other. You don't have to take it away from me to help me.''
 

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