20300: Esser: Call For UN Probe Of Aristide's Leaving Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Call For UN Probe Of Aristide's Leaving Haiti
Friday, 12 March 2004, 12:05 pm
Press Release: United Nations

Only Security Council Can Call For UN Probe Of Aristide's Leaving Haiti
- Annan

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said the Security
Council was responsible for deciding whether there should be an
investigation of how President Jean-Bertrand Aristide came to leave
Haiti.

"This is an issue that the Council will have to discuss and determine
whether it takes it up or not, because the Council acted on the
assumption that the President had resigned and they had a letter of
resignation before them," he
<"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp?nid=559";>said as he
entered UN Headquarters, replying to a question on calls for a probe
from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African Union (AU).

"If they want to get into the investigation and they gave me the
mandate, I would be duty-bound to undertake it. And so this is an
issue that we will need to discuss with the Council," he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Annan's spokesman said a security and humanitarian
mission reached the northern Haitian city of Cap Haitien by way of
Gonaïves today, but concern was rising that food stocks in Gonaïves
could soon run out because of roadblocks impeding access to the
strategically located town.

The mission included representatives of the UN World Food Programme
(WFP), the UN Children's Fund ( http://www.unicef.org/ UNICEF),
spokesman Fred Eckhard told journalists in New York.

Tomorrow an assessment mission will examine access along the road
joining the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and the border of the
Dominican Republic, he said.

The Norwegian Government has provided 100 trucks to help logistics,
Mr. Eckhard said, and the French Red Cross has given UNICEF seven
ambulances. UNICEF has also received $300,000 worth of medical
supplies, while the distribution of water by truck has resumed in
Port-au-Prince.

The UN is concerned because many hospitals and schools still have not
been functioning, he added.
.