22079: (Chamberlain) U.S. to pull all 1,900 troops from Haiti in June (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Will Dunham

     WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - The United States plans to remove all
of its 1,900 troops in Haiti by the end of June as U.N. peacekeepers assume
their duties in the Caribbean nation, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
     The U.S. troops, nearly all Marines, head a 3,600-strong "interim"
international force that entered Haiti starting Feb. 29 after President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and left the impoverished country amid an
armed revolt.
     The force, which also includes 900 French, 500 Canadians and 300
Chileans, has accomplished its mission of restoring stability and security,
a U.S. military spokesman said.
     It will begin a month-long handover to a U.N.-led force at the
beginning of June, Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez told a Pentagon briefing.
     "We'll have all the Marines home by the end of June unless something
significantly changes," Rodriguez said.
     U.S. officials, struggling to maintain force levels in Iraq and
Afghanistan, made clear from the beginning that this American-led
intervention in Haiti would be smaller in scale than in the past.
     In 1994 the United States sent more than 20,000 troops to Haiti to
restore to power Aristide, the country's first democratically elected
leader, after he was deposed in a coup.
     Marine Corps Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, spokesman for the Multinational
Interim Force, said the situation in Haiti was close to chaos when U.S.
troops arrived.
     "Businesses were closed. Schools were closed. People didn't go out on
the street during the daylight, much less during the nighttime. There was
lots of violence," Lapan said, noting that hundreds were killed in the
civil unrest that preceded Aristide's departure.
     "The Multinational Interim Force has been able to bring stability and
security in large measure back to Haiti to kind of return it to the
pre-crisis days," Lapan said.
     "Because of the presence of our forces, we don't see armed groups, we
don't see people openly carrying weapons. We've made it pretty clear that
we won't tolerate that kind of conduct.
     "That's not to say that Haiti still does not face a lot of challenges.
It does, economically and socially," Lapan said.
     The force this week flew helicopter missions to assist humanitarian
relief efforts for a Haitian village hit by devastating flash floods on
Monday.
     The floods have killed more than 600 people in Haiti and neighboring
Dominican Republic.
     Lapan said the United Nations already has an interim headquarters
staff and planners were working with the U.S.-led force on the June
handover of responsibilities.
     A first U.N. Security Council resolution authorized the U.S.-led
interim force to stay for 90 days to June 1. A later resolution allowed for
a 30-day transition period for U.N. peacekeepers to take over.
     The U.S. military has been stretched thin as the Pentagon seeks ways
to maintain the current force level of 138,000 troops in Iraq at least
through the end of 2005.
     The Pentagon last week announced it was shifting 3,600 U.S. Army
soldiers from South Korea to Iraq this summer. The Army said on Tuesday it
was considering sending units generally used only in training exercises in
the United States playing the role of "enemy forces."