After rescuing Elian Gonzalez from an inner tube two miles off Fort Lauderdale Beach on Thanksgiving Day, fisherman Donato Dalrymple refused to turn over the young Cuban rafter to the Coast Guard at sea.

Dalrymple feared the Coast Guard would send him back to Cuba because the boy, clinging to the tube, had not reached land.

``I told them I was not giving him over unless they assured me they would take him to shore, because I knew that's where he would get political asylum,'' said Dalrymple, of Lauderhill. ``I handed the boy over, reluctantly.''

That lifesaving exchange has supplied the Castro government with ammunition to accuse the Clinton administration of violating a 1995 migration accord and to demand Elian's return to his father on the communist island. U.S. officials counter that the Coast Guard and immigration officials brought Elian to shore for medical reasons -- in harmony with the migration agreement -- and as soon as he touched land he was allowed to stay under the same accord.

His Miami relatives want to claim custody of the boy, who was 5 years old when rescued and turned 6 on Monday. Elian lost his mother, Elizabet Gonzalez, in the Florida Straits. But his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, backed by the Cuban government, wants custody, claiming his ex-wife kidnapped their son.

POLICY QUESTION

Immigration officials said they, along with the Coast Guard, were following U.S. policy when they allowed Elian into the country out of concern for his health. That changed his feet from wet to dry under the migration accord, preventing his return to Cuba.

As a result, Elian will be paroled into the country Dec. 23, and the question of his custody will be a matter for Miami-Dade family court.

``It's the migration accord that allows him to remain in the United States for the short term,'' INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said. ``And it's the Cuban Adjustment Act that allows him to adjust his status for the long term.''

That act, which took effect in 1966, allows Cuban migrants to apply for permanent residency in the United States.

One of Elian's Miami cousins, Marileysis Gonzalez, said the boy has stated a desire to remain in the United States.

Elian ``talks to his father on the phone almost every day,'' she said. ``He says he wants to stay. I don't know if one can trust what a 6-year-old says, but he says he wants to stay.''

A VIEW OF CASTRO

To fight back against what it sees as Castro's latest propaganda campaign, the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami portrayed the Cuban president as a hypocrite for his newfound concern for the welfare of Elian.

Exile group members said Castro's current stance toward Elian is inconsistent with his past actions toward emigrating children and is an excuse for political grandstanding.

In an emotional plea, Ernesto Rios recounted how he recently lost his sister and 5-year-old nephew at the hands of the Cuban border patrol. Rios said that on Oct. 21, his sister, Estrella Rios, 35, and her son, Alexis Ernesto Marques, were among a group that tried to escape from Cuba on a small vessel.

Rios said the group was intercepted by members of the Cuban border patrol, who battered the vessel and its occupants with anchors tied to ropes. He said his sister pleaded for them to stop, holding up her bloodied, unconscious son, only to be hit again in the head by an anchor, which killed her. The vessel capsized, he said, and her son drowned.

``Since then, my family has been persecuted horribly in Cuba, and my sister's boyfriend has been arrested,'' Rios said. ``Why is Fidel Castro so concerned about Elian?''