19491: Lemieux: Canadian Press: Canada will send more troops to Haiti. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Canada to send more troops to Haiti


Canadian Press


Sunday, February 29, 2004
OTTAWA

Prime Minister Paul Martin will tell the UN that Canada is
ready to join an international stabilization force in
Haiti, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said Sunday.

"We'll be there when the conditions are right," Graham told
CTV's Question Period. "It's important to get some forces
in there.

"I understand from speaking to (U.S. Secretary of State)
Colin Powell this morning that the Americans will be
landing troops today - at the invitation, of course, of the
president."

Martin was to make the offer Monday while presenting a UN
commission report on the private sector and development.
Government officials said military planners were hammering
out specific options for cabinet to consider this week.

In the meantime, the UN Security Council will consider a
Chapter 7 resolution that would enable deployment of an
international force.

In Haiti, Yves Petillon, head of the Canadian International
Development Agency's aid program in the country and one of
only five Canadians left working out of the ambassador's
residence, said Sunday that only about 60 Canadians had
shown up seeking evacuation.

"Right now, the situation is very tense," said Petillion.
"Many groups are looting in downtown Port-au-Prince.

"Apparently the evacuation plan is going smoothly. The
evacuation is going on right now."

About 1,000 Canadians are registered with the embassy in
Haiti, but Petillon said there are likely many more living
in the country. They were told of staging points for
military-escorted convoys to the airport, but Petillon said
most were heading there on their own.

Most Canadian aid workers have left, said Petillon, the
only Canadian CIDA worker still in the country. He said
relatively few Canadians have taken advantage of the
opportunity to leave because many are missionaries or
Haitian-Canadians.

"The majority of missionaries in this type of situation
decide to stay," he said. "The same, also, for people who
are Canadian and at the same time Haitian."

A company of soldiers - about 120 - from 2nd Battalion,
Royal Canadian Regiment in Gagetown, N.B., were still
standing by in Trenton, Ont., along with members of the
Joint Operations Group out of Kingston, Ont.

Three Hercules transport aircraft dispatched on Saturday
were operating out of the neighbouring Dominican Republic,
each able to take about 60 people at a time. Graham said
there were about 50 Canadian troops in the region as of
Sunday.

An unidentified embassy official at the airport confirmed
at noon on Sunday that few Canadians had shown up. She said
those who came would be taken to Santo Domingo, capital of
the Dominican Republic.

Many routes to the airport had roadblocks and she said the
safety of the trip "depends on where you come from."

Petillon agreed that many routes are not safe, but "with
the Canadian soldiers, it's not a problem to go from the
new embassy to the airport."

Canadian troops were at the airport ensuring the safety of
Hercules flights in and out.

Darren Gibb, a spokesman for Defence Minister David Pratt,
said the Canadian military is offering "flights of
opportunity, meaning should Canadians want to leave, we
will help them do that."

"We're not saying right now when they're going in or where
they're going, for security reasons," he added.

There are two teams on the ground in Haiti - a group of
planners co-ordinating the evacuation, and a small unit of
JTF-2 special forces troops protecting the ambassador and
embassy staff. The Hercs are also supplying those two
detachments.

Graham said Canadian Forces are clearly stretched, with
multiple deployments, including Bosnia and Afghanistan. But
he said Martin, Pratt and the chief of defence staff, Gen.
Ray Henalt, have been coinsidering military options since
last Wednesday.

"I'm confident they'll be able to provide the number of
troops necessary to make a real contribution. They've
already got some 50 troops down there at the moment,
helping in the humanitarian process of removing people."

Graham said Aristide made no request to Canada for
sanctuary, nor was any offered. But Canada will be looking
to do as much as it can for Haiti, he said.

"We do have a special relationship with Haiti," said
Graham. "Apart from being a francophone country and having
our large diaspora in Montreal, we have a good track record
in Haiti.

"I think the prime minister would like to see how we can
translate that into making sure that the transition is
smooth and that we can try to get Haiti on the way to
democracy."

Graham said there has not been a flood of Haitian refugees
looking to get into Canada, nor does he expect one. At the
same time, Canada is not deporting Haitian refugee
claimants.

"We want to stabilize Haiti as quickly as possible to
prevent people from having to leave the island."

Petillon said CIDA programs in Haiti are continuing with
local workers. The agency has given more than $1 million to
the World Food Program, $300,000 to the International Red
Cross and another $300,000 to the Pan-American Health
Organization.

Petillon said the agency is considering proposals from
several other locally based humaniarian organizations and
expects to approve some over the coming days.



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