19266: Esser: Caribbean nations press UN to approve Haiti force (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Reuters

Caribbean nations press UN to approve Haiti force
Thu February 26, 2004 04:37 PM ET

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Caribbean countries have called on the
United Nations to approve the urgent deployment of an international
force to restore order in Haiti, where armed rebels are threatening
to march on the capital.

"The member-states of the Caricom community seek the direct and
immediate intervention of the United Nations within the context of
the U.N. charter," Jamaican Foreign Minister Keith D. Knight told the
15-nation U.N. Security Council on Thursday.

"The situation is one of utmost urgency and the need for decisive
action is paramount," Knight said at the start of a public meeting on
the crisis in Haiti.

The Security Council signaled in advance it was not yet prepared to do
this.

Instead, a draft statement to be adopted later in the day would
declare the council's readiness to quickly approve an international
force for Haiti only on condition that its government and opposition
agree to resolve their differences.

The draft would put the council in line with the United States,
France and other international players who have ruled out an
intervention force for Haiti as long as an armed rebellion still
rages in the streets of the Caribbean nation.

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide reiterated in an interview
with CNN that he would not step down as demanded by armed rebels and
the political opposition in Port-au-Prince, insisting he would serve
out his term to 2006.

The opposition has ruled out any power-sharing deal so long as
Aristide remains in office.

'LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY IN HAITI'

But Bahamas Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, backing Knight, said all
Western Hemisphere governments had "acknowledged who presently stands
as the legitimate authority in Haiti."

"When that legitimate authority calls for assistance, it appears to
us that those who can help restore law and order ought to do so and
to do so now," Mitchell said.

The council met as rebels determined to oust Aristide warned of an
imminent attack on the capital.

More than 60 people have died since the revolt began on February 5
when the rebels, a collection of gangs and well-armed former
soldiers, overran the western city of Gonaives.

Former colonial power France has proposed setting up an international
police force to restore order in Haiti in support of a government of
national unity.

U.S. President George W. Bush has also said the deteriorating
situation in Haiti may require an international security presence,
but only once a political deal was reached.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, scrambling to cope with the crisis
in a country where the world body has no senior staff, planned to
name Reginald Dumas, a retired veteran Trinidad and Tobago diplomat,
as his special adviser on Haiti, U.N. officials said.

U.N. officials have lamented in recent days that the absence of
political staff in the Caribbean country has left them dependent on
media reports for the latest developments.

The United Nations said it tried to evacuate nonessential staff and
their families from Haiti on Wednesday but was unable to do so
because of barricades in the roads.

There are currently about 100 U.N. staff, not counting dependants, in
Haiti.

© Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.
.