23641: (pub) Chamberlain: Brazil, Chile seek political solution in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Guido Nejamkis

     BRASILIA, Brazil, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Brazil and Chile are pushing
Haiti's government to reach a political truce and stem the violence that
threatens a U.N. peacekeeping mission, Chile's foreign minister said on
Wednesday.
     Brazil is sending envoys to the Caribbean nation to help broker an
accord as the 3,000-strong U.N. force struggles to stop killings and civil
unrest.
     U.N. special envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes, a Chilean diplomat, has also
urged the Haitian government to bring sparring political groups to the
negotiating table.
     "Without an internal political accord it's going to be impossible to
have a solution in the medium- and long-term," Chilean Foreign Minister
Ignacio Walker said after meeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva.
     Brazil offered to lead the U.N. peacekeeping force on condition it got
support to reconstruct Haiti after a February revolt killed more than 200
people and forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile after U.S.
and French pressure.
     Brazil, which hopes to win a permanent seat on the U.N. Security
Council, has called for more troops and humanitarian aid to help the thinly
stretched mission after a wave of violence killed at least 50 people since
late September.
     With Brazil's 1,200 peacekeepers exposed to growing risk of ambush and
attack, the center-left government is keen to avoid casualties in a mission
that has faced opposition at home.
     Some Brazilian politicians and media pundits say the United States
should take responsibilty for Haiti's current political problems, not
Brazil. A failed mission would be a huge embarrassment for Lula, who sees
the deployment as concrete evidence of Brazil's role as a regional power.
     Aristide supporters blame the interim government for recent violence.
The government blames Aristide for inciting demonstrations from South
Africa, where he is in exile.
     "It's necessary to put aside the polarization of the past," Walker
said.