23721: (pub) Chamberlain: Brazil to contact Aristide to ease Haiti violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Brazil will set up regular
contact with former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to help
stabilize the Caribbean nation beset by civil unrest and killings, Foreign
Minister Celso Amorim said on Friday.
     A Brazilian envoy will visit Aristide in South Africa, where he took
up exile after a bloody February revolt, and brief him on Latin American
efforts to bring the country's warring political factions together.
     "It can contribute to an atmosphere of peace we are looking for in
Haiti," Amorim said at a diplomatic summit in Brazil, without identifying
the diplomat who will visit Aristide.
     The overture came as Latin American nations push Haiti's interim
government to reach a political truce and stem a wave of violence that
threatens a Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping mission.
      Aristide supporters blame the interim government for recent violence.
The government blames Aristide for inciting demonstrations from South
Africa. As Aristide remains a political figure in Haiti, Brazil believes it
is necessary to involve the former Roman Catholic priest in discussions it
is trying to broker.
      Latin American and Caribbean nations at the "Group of Rio" summit
this week in Brazil vowed to work together to end coups and rebellions that
have plagued their hemisphere's poorest country.
     Brazil has sent envoys to Haiti to broker an accord between political
factions to allow its overstretched U.N. force to begin wide-scale
disarmament.
     Brazil offered to lead the U.N. force on condition it got
international support to rebuild Haiti. It has repeatedly asked for more
troops and humanitarian support to carry out the job.
     Group of Rio nations called on U.N. donors to deliver $1.2 billion in
promised aid to rebuild Haiti and 6,700 troops and 1,800 police authorized
for the U.N. force.
     The force now numbers around 3,000 soldiers but Brazil expects it to
increase to up to 5,700 soldiers within weeks.