25293: Wharram - news - US raises possibility of more foreign troops for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>


Yahoo! News
US raises possibility of more foreign troops for Haiti

Sat Jun 4, 8:54 PM ET

The United States raised the possibility of dispatching more international
troops to Haiti and re-examining their posture ahead of fall general
elections seen as a crucial tool for returning the violence-torn Caribbean
country to stability.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the suggestions following a
spate of armed attacks around the country, including the murder of a French
diplomat and a raid by unidentified gunmen on a Port-au-Prince market on
Wednesday that left at least 10 people dead.

In addition, two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were wounded Thursday, when the
armored personnel carrier came under fire.

Rice called these developments "troubling" and said the United Nations and
other institutions involved in helping Haiti return to normal life "need to
look hard at whether or not the force posture there is adequate" as the
country prepares for the first round of municipal, parliamentary and
presidential elections set for October 9.

"It may be not just a matter of force posture," Rice added in an interview
with The Miami Herald. "It may be a need for more election help."

She said the process could follow the pattern of security-enhancing
procedures implemented by NATO forces in the run-up to last year's election
in Afghanistan, or by the US-led coalition in Iraq ahead of its elections
last January.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recommended last month boosting a UN
stabilization force deployed in Haiti from 6,700 to 7,500 troops, while
increasing the number of international police from about 1,620 to nearly
1,900.

Independent experts, however, believe the international police force should
be boosted to at least 4,600 preferably francophone officers to have a
visible effect.

But the UN Security Council agreed last Tuesday to extend the force's
mandate only until June 24, mainly because of disagreements with China,
which is miffed by a planned visit by Haitian President Boniface Alexandre
to Taiwan and has raised objections to lengthy mandates.

Rice made no specific mention of Annan's proposal for expanding the
stabilization force. She said the current force led by Brazil was doing "a
very good job."

But she expressed concern about the rise of paramilitary anti-government
militias in the country, which has been in turmoil even since before the
February 29, 2004, resignation of President Jean Bertrand Aristide in the
face of an armed revolt and his departure and eventual exile in South
Africa.

Efforts to launch a nationwide disarmament program that would provide
economic incentives to militia members to hand over their weapons have
largely been unsuccessful, according to diplomats.

"Right now, there are too many voices, including too many voices from the
past, that are trying to destabilize the country and there are still too
many militias in Haiti," complained the secretary of state. "We have to make
sure that there are not militias because you can only have the authority of
the state to monopolize violence."

She said the Haitian government needed to build "an adequate and
professional" police force that would able to take full control of law
enforcement functions.

Rice's words came after Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue on
Friday called on the United Nations Friday to re-examine its peacekeepers'
mandate in the light of the violence suggesting their presence was
inadequately geared to helping Haiti's plight.

"We can't have all these (UN) troops in the country and witness the
deterioration of the situation," Latortue told reporters.

"Before the extension of the mission's mandate (at the end of June) we will
go next week to New York to make contact with the UN secretary general Kofi
Annan and the Security Council," he said.

A reputable Brussels-based think tank last week said that Haitian national
police should be essentially taken over by the UN stabilization force
empowered to vet and train its personnel, and oversee its operations.

And the International Crisis Group said that Haiti's current election
schedule was "perhaps overly ambitious."