18718: (Chamberlain) France-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PARIS, Feb 16 (AP) -- The French are studying the possibility of sending
peacekeeping troops to help restore calm to strife-torn Haiti, and could
dispatch such forces from nearby Caribbean territories, government
officials said Tuesday.
   "What can France do specifically? First, we want to reflect on what
could be done urgently. Can we deploy a peacekeeping force?" Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin said on France-Inter radio.
   "We are in contact with all of our partners in the framework of the
United Nations, which has sent a humanitarian mission to Haiti to see what
is possible," the minister said.
   He did not say that France would send troops, and he noted that
deploying peacekeepers "is very difficult" when a nation is in the throes
of violence.
   The minister said French officials were meeting Tuesday "to see what
immediate contribution we can make."
   De Villepin also noted that France has overseas territories close by,
and expertise in the fields of education, health and humanitarian aid.
   "We have some very important assets close to Haiti, with our departments
in the Antilles and Guiana," he said. "It is all that that we want to make
available when the time comes and if the circumstances permit," he said.
   The French Defense Ministry said it has 4,000 military personnel at its
two bases in the area, in Martinique and Guadeloupe.