23063: (Chamberlain) UN-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By EDITH M. LEDERER

   UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 (AP) -- The U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti has
just over 40 percent of its troops and is facing a deteriorating security
situation with armed groups still controlling parts of the country,
according to U.N. diplomats and officials.
   But Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi told a
closed Security Council meeting Thursday that despite deteriorating
security, a fragile political situation and logistical difficulties, the
peacekeepers have made an encouraging start.
   He said about 2,700 peacekeepers are in Haiti and the United Nations
hopes to more than double the number in the next month or so, diplomats
said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
   That would bring it closer to the 6,700-strong force authorized by the
council to replace a 3,600-strong U.S.-led multinational force sent to
Haiti to restore order after a three-week rebellion culminated in the
ouster of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29.
   The U.N. force is concentrated in three locations "but they do not
control the whole area yet," said Germany's deputy U.N. ambassador Wolfgang
Trautwein. "For example, the ports and airports are still very much under
control of the militias."
   Only 240 of the 1,622 civilian police authorized by the council have
arrived and the United Nations is working on getting more, especially from
French-speaking countries, Annabi said, according to diplomats.
   The U.N. force is led by Brazil, which has nearly 1,200 troops, mainly
in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
   Brazil's U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg said the force is
expecting a battalion of French-speaking Africans, another battalion from
Spain and Morocco, and further troops from Sri Lanka and Nepal.
   But he said troop pledges still fall short of the 6,700 total.
   Sardenberg said Brazil had expected the U.S.-led force to start the
disarmament process but it didn't so the U.N. force will have to tackle the
problem of armed groups. But it needs more troops to start the process, he
said.
   The other major challenge for the U.N. mission is to help organize
local, parliamentary and presidential elections next year, Sardenberg said.
   "This process is just beginning and it must be accelerated," he said.