24544: (news) Chamberlain: Rumsfeld on Haitian elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By JOHN J. LUMPKIN

   BRASILIA, Brazil, March 22 (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
raised doubts Tuesday about the prospects for elections this fall in Haiti,
citing the Bush administration's experience with ensuring the safety of
voters in Afghanistan and Iraq.
   "It takes a lot of efforts and planning from a security standpoint,"
Rumsfeld said. "You simply have to be ahead of it or it can get bad fast."
   The Pentagon chief spoke to reporters en route to the Brazilian capital,
where he was to meet Wednesday with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and
top security officials. Brazil currently leads the U.N. peacekeeping force
in Haiti and has deployed more than 1,100 troops there.
   Peacekeeping forces in Haiti have been seen as less-than-aggressive in
the face of widespread violence. Bureaucratic delays have also prevented
much of $1.2 billion in pledged reconstruction money from being spent.
   On Tuesday at the United Nations, Juan Gabriel Valdes, the head of the
peacekeeping mission, said troops would step up action to ensure that
militias and gangs do not disrupt elections set for October and November.
On Sunday, two U.N. soldiers were killed in Haiti, one of them as
peacekeepers raided a police station occupied by gunmen.
   Valdes said that while many former soldiers had agreed to disarm, the
major problem was militias affiliated with them or armed gangs in
shantytowns. The United Nations is now giving those groups the chance to
turn over their weapons and return to civilian life.
   Rumsfeld arrived in Brazil from Argentina, where he met with Defense
Minister Jose Pampuro and also focused on Argentina's role in peacekeeping
operations in Haiti, where 550 Argentine troops are participating in the
10-month-old international mission.
   Pampuro told reporters in a brief statement that the operation is a
"remarkable example of regional responsibility." After landing in March
2004 to halt violence, the U.S. military turned over the mission in Haiti
to allies.