21952: (Chamberlain) No South American consensus on Haiti troops (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

South America:  No Consensus on Peacekeeping Troops to Haiti

By Mario Osava


RIO DE JANEIRO, May 17 (IPS) - The countries of the Southern Cone region of
South America are sending troops to Haiti to take part in the United
Nations peacekeeping mission there, but without the strong internal support
usually enjoyed by such missions of solidarity with nations in conflict.

The 1,200 Brazilian troops will take on a ''police role'' in Haiti that the
armed forces do not even play in their own country, since the government
''refuses to free up federal troops to guarantee public order in large
cities where crime reigns supreme,'' parliamentary Deputy Antonio Carlos
Pannunzio told IPS.

Pannunzio, a lawmaker with the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party,
also accused the government of violating the constitution by deciding to
send the peacekeeping troops without prior parliamentary approval.

A convoy of 58 armoured military vehicles, already painted with the UN
insignia, set out last Wednesday from southern Brazil on the way to the
port of Rio de Janeiro, where they will embark for Haiti.

But the mission has not yet received formal ratification from Congress. The
Chamber of Deputies passed the proposal last Thursday, and the Senate vote
-- also expected to be broadly in favour -- is scheduled for this week.

The fact that the military has already begun to mobilise troops and
equipment drew protests from many parliamentarians, even lawmakers that
support the government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

''If Congress does not ratify it, the troops will not be sent,'' said
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who along with Defence Minister José Viegas
was summoned to explain the peacekeeping mission to parliamentary
commissions in the two houses of Congress last week.

The Chilean government faced even stronger criticism in early March, when
it announced that it was dispatching 300 soldiers to take part in the first
multinational peacekeeping force in Haiti, led by the United States and
France, without consulting parliament first.

In Brazil, lawmakers also criticised the expenses involved in posting
troops to Haiti at a time when the Brazilian people are suffering the
effects of fiscal austerity efforts that have stood in the way of
increasing the minimum wage and expanding social programmes, while
aggravating poverty.

They also pointed to the uncertain situation in Haiti, where armed bands
continue to fight, and which has no Congress and only a government with
questionable legitimacy, the product of the Feb. 29 collapse of the
government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, seen by many as a coup
d'etat.

Similar resistance from part of the political spectrum is faced by the
governments of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, which plan to add their own
military contingents to the multinational force that will continue
peacekeeping efforts in the Caribbean island nation as of Jun. 1, under
Brazilian leadership. The three countries are also planning to include
police officers.

Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil (along with Paraguay) are partners in the
Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc, of which Chile is an
associate member. But each country is participating ''in an independent and
sovereign manner,'' Uruguayan Defence Minister Yamandú Fau explained to
IPS.

Montevideo did not decide to send the nearly 600 troops and around a dozen
police officers until the United Nations had reformulated its request,
originally addressed to the Mercosur as a whole, said the minister, who
noted that the bloc does not encompass the aspect of military integration.

Uruguay has a tradition of taking part in U.N. peacekeeping missions. It
currently has 1,733 troops stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
in an operation that is more dangerous and complex than the one in Haiti,
according to Fau.

Another 1,650 Uruguayan soldiers are participating in peacekeeping
operations in other parts of the world.

But securing a green light from parliament in the case of Haiti is a more
complicated question, due to the doubts surrounding the overthrow of
Aristide and other factors.

The leftist Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio (EP-FA), which holds 40
percent of the seats in the Uruguayan parliament, will set strict
conditions on which tasks can be carried out by the country's troops and
police officers, since the mission is governed by article seven of the U.N.
charter, which includes the use of force.

The EP-FA has not yet taken a stance on the matter, Deputy José Bayardi,
one of the coalition's representatives in the parliamentary Defence
Commission, commented to IPS.

But before the leftist coalition votes in favour of sending the
peacekeeping troops, the action plan proposed by the mission's Brazilian
leadership will have to be carefully studied, he added.

Bayardi pointed out that the troops will be sent to a country in upheaval,
occupied by U.S. and French forces, where violence has continued to reign
since the democratic government was toppled.

Washington posted some 2,000 soldiers after the fall of Aristide, who is in
exile in Jamaica after spending two weeks in the Central African Republic.
He maintains that he was forced to resign by U.S. agents.

The United Nations has been urged to investigate the events of late
February by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Haiti forms part
although it is currently suspended because the bloc does not recognise the
U.S.-backed government of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, which has
little authority.

Non-governmental organisations also accuse Washington of contributing to
Aristide's fall.

A concern similar to Bayardi's was expressed by another Uruguayan lawmaker,
Luis Leglise of the centre-right National Party, who said it was strange
that police officers were to be included in the contingent.

And although he said he would back the government's request, he told IPS
that oversight of the mission would be greater than in the case of other
peacekeeping operations in which Uruguay has taken part.

A similar panorama is facing the government of Argentina. The opposition
Radical Civic Union accepts the sending of troops ''but within limits'' set
by Congress, such as a strict limitation to peacekeeping activities, which
would exclude combat.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos still has to overcome similar difficulties.
On Friday he urged the senators to ''adequately meditate'' on the
government's request for dispatching a new contingent of peacekeeping
troops to Haiti, to replace the one that was sent earlier.

This time, the contingent would include 36 carabineros (militarised
police), to provide training -- an aspect that has led parliamentarians of
the centre-left governing Coalition for Democracy to add their voices to
criticism from the right-wing opposition parties.

Meanwhile, in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the arguments against
participating in the peacekeeping mission did not deter a broad majority
from voting in favour of sending troops, and a similar outcome is expected
in the Senate.

Brazil is seeking to ''exercise influence in an area outside of its
competence,'' by taking upon itself duties that should fall to other
countries, argued Pannunzio, who sits on the foreign relations and national
defence commissions in the lower house of Congress.

Lawmaker Fernando Gabeira, who left the governing Workers' Party last year,
accused the government of submitting to the interests of the
''industrialised powers of the North'' with a view to gaining a permanent
seat on the U.N. Security Council.

But the foreign minister said Brazilian diplomacy, especially under the
Lula administration, has provided more than enough demonstrations of its
independence.

However, Amorim conceded that active participation in helping resolve
international problems ensures Brazil greater legitimacy when it comes to
influencing decision-making within the sphere of the United Nations.

The peacekeeping mission is aimed at preventing ''a bloodbath'' and ''total
chaos'' in Haiti, said the minister, who argued that it is a humanitarian
mission and a responsibility that Brazil cannot evade.

Sending troops abroad, despite the risks they will face in Haiti, is
''positive'' and in line with Brazil's tradition of contributing to
peacekeeping efforts, Clovis Brigagao, director of the Centre of American
Studies at a private university in Rio de Janeiro, said in an interview
with IPS.

Besides strengthening Brazil's candidacy for a permanent seat on the U.N.
Security Council, it serves as ''good training, and 'internationalises' the
military spirit that in the past acted against the internal enemy'' --
leftist political leaders and activists -- said the expert in international
relations, alluding to the 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

With regards to the ''policing role'' and the possible dispatch of police
officers by Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, Brigagao noted that today's new
peacekeeping missions are ''multi-dimensional'', with a mix of military,
police, judicial and social agents.