19524: (hermantin)Miami-Herald- Marines sent to secure ports (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Mar. 01, 2004

U.S. FORCES


Marines sent to secure ports

President Bush dispatches Marines to Haiti, then the United Nations votes
15-0 to endorse a multinational force to restore order and dispatch
humanitarian aid.

BY CAROL ROSENBERG

crosenberg@herald.com


The vanguard of a U.S.-led multinational force, the 200 Marines who landed
in Haiti on Sunday night were handed a two-pronged mission:

Secure the airport and the seaport to make them safe enough for the U.S.
Coast Guard to keep repatriating Haitians who flee by sea, and prepare the
way for a multinational, humanitarian peacekeeping mission to encourage
Haitians to stay home.

The Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., arrived in Port-au-Prince about an hour
before the U.N. Security Council voted 15-0 in an emergency session to
authorize a multinational interim force for up to three months.

Also, military and diplomatic sources said 200 French forces were expected
early today from the French Caribbean territory of Martinque.

The U.N. resolution described the effort as a ''stabilization force'' rather
than U.N. peacekeepers, assigned to help Haitian police ``establish and
maintain public safety and law and order and to promote and protect human
rights.''

A week ago, at the State Department's request, the Pentagon's Southern
Command sent 50 Marines to reinforce security surrounding U.S. Embassy
buildings and residences in Port-au-Prince.

While the U.N. body met, Southcom spokesman Col. David McWilliams emphasized
that Sunday's additional Marines were ''the leading element of a
multinational interim force,'' assigned to secure key sites.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will commit additional forces ''as
necessary'' in coming days, with no final numbers determined on Sunday
night, McWilliams said.

Echoing the U.N. resolution, the Pentagon emphasized that the U.S. forces
were being sent ''at the request of the new president of Haiti,'' Supreme
Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre, who replaced Aristide under Haiti's
constitution.

An unnamed U.S. commander will take charge of the initial multinational
force, defense officials said, with future leadership to be decided later.

Defense sources said the Marines were assigned to take up positions at the
airport, so more multinational forces could come, and the seaport to make it
safe for humanitarian aid to arrive and to assist U.S.-Haitian cooperation.

Besides the United States, France and Canada had earlier expressed
willingness to participate in a peacekeeping force -- although both
initially indicated they would contribute police, not troops, for a civilian
stabilization force. By Sunday night, France had agreed to send troops, not
gendarmes, a recognition that Haiti's security situation had deteriorated,
diplomatic sources said.

The U.N. resolution expressed the international body's willingness ``to
establish a follow-on U.N. stabilization force to support continuation of a
peaceful and constitutional political process and the maintenance of a
secure and stable environment.''

It instructed Secretary General Kofi Annan to consult with the Organization
of American States on a plan for the ''size, structure and mandate of the
force,'' preferably by April.

The United States last contributed troops to a multinational force in Haiti
in 1994. That action followed a U.S. diplomatic effort, backed by the threat
of U.S. military force, that returned Aristide to power after a 1991 coup
d'état.

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