21634: Lemieux: AP: Council Authorizes U.N. Mission in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Council Authorizes U.N. Mission in Haiti

Friday April 30, 2004 7:16 PM


By EDITH M. LEDERER

Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Security Council
authorized a wide-ranging U.N. mission in Haiti
Friday with more than 8,000 troops and police, as
well as political and human rights experts to
help stabilize the troubled Caribbean nation.

The U.N. mission will start on June 1 for an
initial period of six months, but the council
said it intends to renew the mandate, a signal of
its agreement with Secretary-General Kofi Annan
that a long-term U.N. commitment is essential to
turn Haiti into a functioning democracy.

The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti - to be
known as MINUSTAH - is the latest in a string of
international plans to help Haiti. Despite those
efforts, the country remains unstable,
undeveloped and the Western Hemisphere's poorest.


Ten international missions to Haiti have failed
in the last decade because of a lack of sustained
commitment, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti,
Reginald Dumas, said in March.

``I hope with this we'll be there for the long
haul and not lose patience as we did in the
past,'' Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz
said Friday.

The resolution adopted unanimously by the council
authorized up to 6,700 troops and 1,622
international police, as Annan requested, but
U.N. officials have stressed it will take time to
reach those ceilings.

The U.N. military contingent will replace the
3,600-strong U.S.-led multinational force sent to
Haiti after a three-week rebellion led the
country's first democratically elected president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to flee in February.

The resolution commended the rapid deployment of
the multinational force - which also includes
contingents from Canada, Chile and France - ``and
the stabilization efforts it has undertaken.''

But the council said ``the situation in Haiti
continues to constitute a threat to international
peace and security in the region.''

U.S. deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday said he
was ``very pleased'' with the resolution and
hoped it would encourage countries to contribute
troops.

Many countries were waiting for a strong
statement from the council, and ``we think this
will help,'' he said.

Munoz said Chile, Brazil and other Latin American
nations would likely contribute troops. He said
there were offers from outside the region as
well, though he wouldn't identify any other
countries.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said
last week his country was prepared to take
command of the U.N. force and send 1,470 troops
if the international community made a commitment
to rebuild Haiti.

The resolution gives the U.N. mission a robust
mandate under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter,
which allows the use of military force if
necessary.

The U.N. troops and police are authorized to
support the transitional government ``to ensure a
secure and stable environment within which the
constitutional and political process in Haiti can
take place.''

International police are authorized to assist the
government in restructuring and reforming the
Haitian National Police, ``consistent with
democratic policing standards.'' And the
international police and U.N. troops are also
authorized to assist the Haitian police in
disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating ``all
armed groups.''

But less than half of Haiti's 5,000 police have
returned to their posts since Aristide fled,
posing challenges for the transitional government
that says it wants to reconcile Haiti's divided
population of 8.2 million.







Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004




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