19474: (Craig) AP: U.S. to Send Marines to Help Secure Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

U.S. to Send Marines to Help Secure Haiti
February 29, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRES

WASHINGTON -- The United States will send Marines to Haiti
in the first phrase of an international security force
following the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
the Bush administration said Sunday.

The United States helped the democratically elected
Aristide to depart, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said. He provided no further details.

The administration planned to consult with allies about
seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution that would
authorize international support for a peaceful and
constitutional transition of power, Boucher said.

"We have been informed that several other countries are
prepared to join this mission," Boucher said.

He said the countries want to help Haitians quickly form an
independent government.

"We call on all Haitians to respect this peaceful and
constitutional succession," Boucher said.

President Bush was expected to comment on the developments
in the Caribbean nation upon his return to the White House
early Sunday afternoon from Camp David.

Earlier, a senior administration official said after the
one-time U.S. ally left Haiti that Aristide's decision was
"in the best interest of the Haitian people."

Marines assembled to help repatriate Haitian migrants
aboard Coast Guard ships.

Rather than send the Marines by ship, as was considered
before Aristide's departure, they were expected to go by
air in order to arrive more quickly, said defense
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The plan was to fly in as many as several hundred Marines
to assist the Coast Guard at one or more Haitian ports, the
officials said. Such a force, known as a special Marine
Air-Ground Task Force, was standing by at Camp Lejeune,
N.C., a major Marine Corps base.

The centerpiece of such a task force would be elements of a
Marine infantry battalion that is always on short-notice
alert at Camp Lejeune, supplemented by Marine aircraft,
logistics and other transportation elements.

As a next step, the administration planned to use those
Marines or a larger group of troops as part of an
international security force assembled under the auspices
of a regional institution called the Caribbean Community,
officials said.

At a debate in New York, Democratic presidential candidate
John Edwards said the United States should be part of a
U.N. force to secure Haiti. The North Carolina senator and
other Democrats accused President Bush of neglecting the
Caribbean nation as it spiraled into chaos.

"He's late, as usual," said John Kerry, the undisputed
front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

With Aristide's departure, the head of Haiti's supreme
court said he was taking charge. One U.S. concern, said the
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was that the
rebels who forced Aristide to flee might demand a role in
the new government. The United States considers many
members of these groups to be committed to violence and
undeserving of any political role.

Another U.S. official said it appeared unlikely that U.S.
military aircraft or personnel would be needed to evacuate
Americans in Haiti.

Secretary of State Colin Powell had spoken on the telephone
with the foreign ministers of Argentina, France, Jamaica
and Panama. Powell conferred on Saturday with Thabo Mbeki,
the president of South Africa, which is the country most
often mentioned as Aristide's destination, according to a
U.S. official.

Aristide's ouster angered some members of the Congressional
Black Caucus.

Rep. Charles Rangel, who was deeply involved in restoring
Aristide's elected government to power in 1994, said the
United States must shoulder much of the blame for
Aristide's fall and the chaos that brought it on.

"I don't know what's going on, but we are just as much as
part of this coup d'etat as the rebels, looters or anyone
else," Rangel, D-N.Y., said on ABC's "This Week."

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said that in a country "where a
true democracy has recently emerged after decades of
autocratic rule," the elected president "has been pushed
out by an administration anxious to get rid of him."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/international/americas/29WIRE-MARI.html?ex=1079078697&ei=1&en=e0777728a2dfe4a1
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company