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27198: Hermantin(Newsl)Apparent suicide adds to Haiti's election turmoil (fwd)
Leonie Hermantin
U.N. commander found dead
Apparent suicide adds to Haiti's election turmoil
By Carol J. Williams
Los Angeles Times
January 8, 2006
MIAMI · The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti was found dead at
an upscale hotel in the country's capital early Saturday with an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials in Port-au-Prince said.
The death of Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira Da Matta Bacellar, a Brazilian, seemed
likely to further complicate the world body's long-thwarted efforts to bring
stability to violence-racked Haiti and organize elections.
Haiti has been without an elected leader since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
fled an armed rebellion in February 2004. Presidential and parliamentary
elections were to have been held in November but have been delayed repeatedly
by the U.S.-backed interim leadership.
Bacellar, 58, was found in his suite at the Hotel Montana with a gunshot wound
to the head and his service revolver nearby, according to Radio Metropole and
other news agencies at the scene.
In a dispatch from Sao Paulo, the Brazilian army initially termed the general's
death the result of a "firearms accident." In a later statement, the army said
Brazilians "profoundly lamented" Bacellar's death and that army investigators
would travel to Haiti today to conduct their own review of the shooting.
Chilean Gen. Eduardo Aldunate was put in charge of the military mission until
Brazil replaces the commander of its 1,200 troops in Haiti, the largest
contingent of the now 7,265-strong U.N. military deployment.
The contemplative soldier with snow-white hair and black eyebrows inherited
command Aug. 31 and had witnessed a recent deterioration of security in the
capital's teeming, gang-controlled slums.
An official of Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, Rosemond Pradel, last
week blamed the U.N. mission for the latest postponement of elections, citing
its failure to halt escalating slum violence and a rash of kidnappings. Pradel
confirmed that the vote scheduled for today was being called off but said no
new election date could be set because of persistent security and
organizational problems.
Alarmed by the delays, the U.N. Security Council and the Organization of
American States convened special sessions Friday during which they instructed
Haitian officials to cease infighting and to hold elections no later than Feb.
7.
The OAS said in a statement that it sees "no valid technical reasons to
continue postponing the elections," and that security issues "in no way justify
further delay."
A U.S. diplomat in Port-au-Prince said the State Department considers the Feb.
7 deadline feasible and does not believe Bacellar's death will affect the
electoral calendar.
But Haitians point to the daily gunfights in gang-controlled neighborhoods such
as Cite Soleil and Bel-Air and abductions for ransom as dangers preventing the
setup of polling places in the most populous areas. Almost half the 3.4 million
people who registered to vote still haven't received their ID cards or been
told where they will cast their ballots.
Expressing the international community's mounting impatience, U.N. mission
chief Juan Gabriel Valdes warned Friday that the troops under Bacellar's
command and some of the 1,700-plus U.N. police in Haiti would occupy Cite
Soleil to break up the crime and kidnapping rings.
Bacellar, as well as his Brazilian predecessor in the mission's command, had
been on record as opposing any use of U.N. force that could endanger
bystanders. In an October interview with the Los Angeles Times, Bacellar said
his troops stayed out of certain areas of the capital "to avoid collateral
damage."
A serious and outwardly serene career soldier, Bacellar described his mission
in strictly military terms, discussing deployments, patrolling and readiness
while professing little knowledge of the U.N.'s longer-term political
objectives of seating a legitimate government.
The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Co. newspaper.