18544: (Chamberlain) US says foreign police may help in Haiti crisis (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Saul Hudson

     WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it
was discussing the possibility of foreign police being sent to Haiti but
that it was not pushing for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down
to defuse an armed revolt.
     U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would discuss at a crisis
meeting on Friday in Washington whether Canada and Caribbean nations could
bolster Haiti's police, which have been battling rebels for control of some
towns this month.
     Powell said he has been disappointed in Aristide's performance since a
U.S. invasion a decade ago restored him to power following a coup. But he
stressed the former Roman Catholic priest, whose term ends in 2006, was
elected democratically and that Caribbean mediators were focusing on a
negotiated solution in the Hemisphere's poorest nation.
     "The policy of the administration is not regime change. President
Aristide is the elected president of Haiti," Powell told the Senate's
Foreign Relations Committee.
     "We will be discussing with the Canadians and CARICOM (the Caribbean
Community bloc) nations whether or not they are in a position to provide
police support to the government in order to bring these disturbing
situations under control," Powell added.
     A senior State Department official said the idea, already discussed
between Powell and Canada's Foreign Minister Bill Graham, was for Aristide
and Haiti's opposition to move to calm the violence before police
reinforcements might be sent.
     "Step one is for Haitians to at least start to contribute to a
situation of calm," said the official, who asked not to be named. "There
might be a role in that context for foreign police to go down to maintain
order."
     On Friday, Powell plans to host Graham, the Organization of American
States' Secretary General Cesar Gaviria and Caribbean officials to hammer
out plans for dealing with a crisis in which violent protests against
Aristide exploded into a full-scale revolt this month.
     The senior official said the nations would discuss their possible
contributions to the police contingent. The foreign police could arrive
within weeks of the sides in Haiti starting to restore calm, he added.
     U.S. officials have been leery of foreigners helping quell the
violence for fear they would become targets of armed gangs or be viewed as
favoring one side or the other.
     The United States says the deadly surge in violence stems from the
president's practice of using gangs of thugs to intimidate political
opponents.
     Caribbean mediators won acceptance earlier this month from Aristide
that he would set up a broad-based advisory council to the government,
appoint a new prime minister and disarm gangs aligned with political
parties.
     The United States is worried the crisis could provoke an exodus of
refugees from Haiti and has a long-standingcontingency plan to house them
at its Guantanamo Naval base on Cuba, where it also detains enemies in its
war on terrorism.
     U.S. officials say there has been no obvious increase in refugees
because of the current crisis. Still, Powell recalled how thousands of
Haitians fled on boats to Florida before the U.S. military intervened a
decade ago.
     "We'll do everything we can to not have that situation again," he
said.