25522: Wharram - news - Annan Makes Plea For Troops in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Washington Post

Annan Makes Plea For Troops in Haiti

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 30, 2005; A18

UNITED NATIONS, June 29 -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan asked
the United States this week to consider sending troops to Haiti to support a
U.N. peacekeeping mission beset by mounting armed challenges to its
authority, according to senior U.N. officials.

Annan told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a meeting at U.N.
headquarters Tuesday afternoon that he may have to ask for American "boots
on the ground" in the coming months to reinforce more than 6,500 Brazilian,
Chilean, Argentine and other peacekeeping forces serving in Haiti, the
officials said.

He expressed hope that the United States would participate in a planned U.N.
rapid reaction force, authorized by the Security Council earlier this month,
that would have the firepower to intimidate armed gangs threatening the
country's fragile political transition. Officials said that similar requests
are being considered for other countries, including Canada and France. "We
want scarier troops," one senior U.N. official said.

Annan told Rice that the Haitians "respect the U.S. military," according to
a senior U.N. diplomat familiar with the closed-door meeting. Annan added
that the United Nations may make a formal request for troops later, the
diplomat said.

The plea from Annan comes weeks after Rice questioned the need for U.S.
military intervention in Haiti, saying that it would be a "mistake" to
abandon confidence in the ability of the Brazilian-led peacekeeping force to
do the job. Rice provided Annan with no pledges of military support,
officials said, but offered to help persuade France and Canada to contribute
to the mission.

Following the meeting, Annan's office made no specific mention of his
suggestion about U.S. troops. Instead, Annan's spokesman issued a statement
saying that the U.N. chief had highlighted the "need for greater military
support" for the U.N. mission during his talks with Rice.

The Pentagon has been weighing a request from the U.S. ambassador to Haiti,
James B. Foley, and other senior U.S. officials to present an American show
of force in the troubled Caribbean island nation, according to U.S.
officials. The officials, who said they were not authorized to speak
publicly on the issue, expressed concern that violence could spiral out of
control, threatening the country's municipal and presidential elections
scheduled for October and December.

U.S. and U.N. officials have begun a series of preliminary discussions about
a possible U.S. military role in Haiti, including the provision of
logistical and intelligence support to the planned U.N. rapid reaction
force, according to senior U.N. diplomats. But the diplomats said that the
United States, which currently has only four military staff officers serving
in the U.N. mission, has made no formal commitment to expand its military
presence.

The chief U.N. peacekeeping official, Jean-Marie Guehenno of France,
declined to discuss the specifics of any military contacts with Washington.
"At the moment, we are discussing a range of options," he said. "We don't
exclude any options."

The Bush administration sent U.S. troops into Haiti in March 2004 to halt an
upsurge of violence that culminated in former president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's flight from Haiti. A Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping force
replaced the United States as the country's chief guarantor of security.

In Port-Au-Prince on Wednesday, hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers raided a slum
filled with gangs loyal to Aristide, killing six gunmen. The largely
Brazilian force suffered no casualties during the eight-hour offensive.
About 300 soldiers participated in the operation. Troops detained 13
suspected criminals and turned them over to Haitian police.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company