By Frances Kerry
MIAMI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The nun who hosted a meeting between Cuban boatwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez and his grandmothers took the side of his Miami relatives in the bitter custody battle over him on Thursday, saying he should stay in the United States rather than return to Cuba.
``I believe that Elian must be in a secure environment that is free of fear as much as possible,'' Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin said in a statement. ``Therefore I believe that at this time the best environment for Elian is in the United States.''
Her statement, preceded by similar comments to local media, effectively handed the Miami relatives a moral victory in their battle to keep 6-year-old Elian here rather than send him back to his father and other relatives in communist-run Cuba.
O'Laughlin, a Dominican nun and president of Barry University, was commenting on the case a day after hosting a meeting in her Miami Beach home between Elian and his grandmothers, who are in the United States to make their case.
It was the first time the boy had seen any family members from Cuba since he set off from the island with his mother last Nov. 21. Elian's mother and 10 others drowned on the voyage.
Elian was picked up after drifting for two days on an inner tube and taken in by Miami relatives, who say the child faces a better life in the United States and have filed a suit in federal court to challenge a U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) ruling he should go back to Cuba.
O'Laughlin said in her statement that she had hoped that at Wednesday's reunion ``there could be a healing among family members as well as a joyful experience between the child and his grandmothers.'' Before the meeting, she believed that Elian ``should grow up with his father,'' she said.
But she said she had doubts regarding ``restrictions and fear associated with the meeting. A meeting that should have been a joyful reunion was tinged with fear and lack of trust.''
``His mother intended him to live here and I think that should be the case at least for the present,'' the nun said, in an echo of the Miami relatives' stance that Elian's mother, Elisabeth Brotons, would have wanted her son to stay here.
O'Laughlin, who said she thought Elian needed a time of routine and time to understand and mourn the loss of his mother, added she still hoped there would be ``joyful'' visits between Elian and his father and grandparents.
Local Fox TV affiliate WSVN reported earlier that O'Laughlin was flying to Washington on Thursday to talk to U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno. Reno, who has backed the INS stance, is an old friend and was the one to suggest O'Laughlin's home as a neutral spot for the meeting.
The tug-of-war over Elian has become a bitter family feud as well as a highly politicized struggle between old foes -- President Fidel Castro and the large Cuban community in Miami. Both sides have traded charges of political manipulation.
While Elian and the Miami relatives turned up on time, the grandmothers were an hour late after last-minute objections to the presence of members of the powerful exile group, the Cuban American National Foundation, in a neighbouring house.
During the wait, O'Laughlin was with the Miami relatives and Elian, playing a children's game which she later described as great fun. When the grandmothers arrived, they went straight into their meeting with Elian upstairs, with the relatives downstairs and O'Laughlin keeping a low profile.
In an incident that may have influenced O'Laughlin's view, one grandmother failed to heed one of the ground-rules for the meeting, that no mobile telephones should be taken in. The telephone was spotted and taken away, O'Laughlin said on Wednesday evening.
20:34 01-27-00
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