21632: (Chamberlain) New UN peacekeeping mission set for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Irwin Arieff

     UNITED NATIONS, April 30 (Reuters) - The Security Council on Friday
approved creation of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti to take over the
task of restoring stability from a U.S.-led multinational force on June 1.
     A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council authorized
deployment of up to 6,700 U.N. troops and as many as 1,622 civilian police
in the impoverished and chronically unstable Caribbean nation, in line with
the recommendations of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
     But while Annan asked for a two-year mandate for the new force, in
hopes of demonstrating a long-term commitment to Haiti, the council
approved the force for just six months "with the intention to renew for
further periods."
     The move reflected council efforts to keep the soaring peacekeeping
budget under a tighter rein, diplomats said.
     Brazil is expected to assume leadership of the new force.
     With just a month to assemble it, some diplomats suggested it would be
hard to come up with enough troops.
     But Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, predicted countries in
Latin America and elsewhere would help out.
     "I trust that we will have the troops," he told reporters. "I hope
that with this (resolution), we will be there for the long haul and not
lose patience, as we have in the past."
     The council had approved a short-term deployment of the U.S.-led force
-- which now numbers around 3,700 troops -- on Feb. 29, after President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled under pressure from the international community
as an armed rebellion threatened the capital Port-au-Prince.
     The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported
on Thursday that the U.S.-led force had helped improve security but was
limited by its small size. Haiti was still volatile and crime was on the
rise, it said, noting that Washington had sent in 20,000 troops in 1994 to
restore Aristide to power after a coup.
     Aristide, who complained after leaving Haiti two months ago that he
was forced out of power by the United States and France, is currently in
Jamaica. A condition of his stay was to refrain from activity that would
appear to set the stage for a return to power.
     But in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, Aristide supporters demanded the
international community allow him to return.
     "The U.S. has no right to kidnap our president. We want Aristide back
here in the flesh," Lesly Gustave, a spokesman for the "Little Church"
community, told a news conference.
     The United States has denied the former leader's charges he was forced
out in a "political kidnapping."
     The new U.N. force, to be called the U.N. Stabilization Mission in
Haiti, aims to enable a return to democracy in a secure and stable
environment, the council said. Free and fair municipal, parliamentary and
presidential elections should be held "at the earliest possible date," it
said.
     The mission is authorized to help the transitional government now in
place to take weapons away from armed groups, protect human rights,
restructure the national police, and restore public order across the
country, the council said.
     U.N. peacekeepers are also authorized to protect civilians "under
imminent threat of physical violence." About 25,000 Haitians have weapons,
according to a survey by the Organization of American States and the U.N.
Development Program.