6044: UN to wind down Haiti mission (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier@tradewind.net

Wednesday, 29 November, 2000, 00:15 GMT 
UN to wind down Haiti mission BBC NEWS

 The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has recommended that
the UN mission in Haiti should end when its current mandate            
expires next February. In a report to the Security Council, Mr Annan  
said the present climate of instability made it inadvisable to extend
the mission's term. The UN has almost seventy officials in Haiti       
assisting the police and judiciary, as well as advising on human rights
matters. But Mr Annan said their jobs had been severely limited by
rampant crime, street protests and violence. The report comes as the
electoral authorities continued to count votes from Sunday's         
presidential election, which the former president, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide is widely assumed to have won. The BBC correspondent         
at the UN says the report paints an alarming  picture of a country mired
in political turmoil  and sliding further into poverty.