19125: (Chamberlain) US-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By GEORGE GEDDA

   WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (AP) -- The United States may seek a U.N. Security
Council resolution authorizing dispatch of international peacekeepers to
Haiti if a settlement between government and opposition forces is reached,
a U.S. official said Tuesday.
   Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has accepted a settlement plan
supported by the United States, other Western Hemisphere countries and the
European Union.
   The democratic opposition in Haiti was about to reject the proposal on
Monday but Secretary of State Colin Powell convinced them in a late
afternoon phone call to give the plan more thought, the State Department
said.
   Department spokesman Richard Boucher urged the Haitian opposition to
accept the plan, calling it their best opportunity to play a meaningful
role in government.
   A response was expected on Tuesday. A key feature of the plan is the
appointment of a prime minister acceptable to both sides in the conflict.
   French President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday his country is ready to
consider contributing to any eventual peacekeeping force approved by the
United Nations.
   "France does not exclude contributing to a civilian force for peace," he
said, adding however that such a deployment "depends on a decision of the
Security Council."
   U.S. officials said any peacekeepers will be sent to enforce an
agreement, not to restore order. They have not said whether any Americans
would participate.
   After seizing control of Cap Haitien on Sunday, rebel forces have been
threatening to attack Port-au-Prince. Cap Haitien is the country's second
largest city.
   There is no sign as yet of a repeat Haitian refugee crisis. U.S. Coast
Guard and other government aircraft have been patrolling the skies over
waters adjacent to Haiti. They have reported no exodus, nor evidence of
boat construction activities by individual Haitians. More than 40,000
Haitians fled during a political crisis in the early 1990's.
   At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We have a plan in
place to stop any boats. Our position is very clear. They will be returned
to the country from which they departed."
   The country most anxious about the Haitian upheaval is the Bahamas, an
island chain that sits between Haiti and South Florida.
   The United States is helping to monitor the waters between Haiti and the
Bahamas to assist that country and to guard against the possibility that
Haitians arriving there will island-hop their way to South Florida, the
official said.
   The U.S. official, asking not to be identified, said that perhaps 25
percent of Haiti's police have left the force this month. Concerned about
weakened security, Aristide has been looking to foreign countries to
bolster his weapons supplies, the official said.
   But Aristide has few allies. Among them is South African President Thabo
Mbeki, one of only two foreign government leaders who attended 200th
anniversary independence celebrations in January. The other was the prime
minister of the Bahamas.
   Asked whether South Africa has been supporting Aristide in the crisis or
urging him to make concessions, the official said "they are not tilting
toward pressuring Aristide." He declined to elaborate.