19537: White: PELOSI--Statement on Decision to Send International Peacekeepers to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>

Sunday, February 29, 2004

Contact:  Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-225-0100

Pelosi Statement on Decision to Send International Peacekeepers to Haiti

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the
following statement today on the resignation of Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and on the announcement that U.S. Marines
would be sent to Haiti as part of an international peacekeeping force:

"While it is appropriate that an international peacekeeping force is
being sent to Haiti and that the United States is a part of that
force, actions should have been taken to end the violence before it
spread to Port-au-Prince.  Had peacekeepers been sent earlier, a
political settlement that better respected the results of the last
democratic election with less bloodshed and chaos could have been
achieved.

"As we go forward, the U.S. should be part of a process that respects
the Haitian constitution, reduces violence, and provides humanitarian
assistance to the people of Haiti."