27332: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-UN Commander (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 23 (AP) -- A Brazilian general took command on
Monday of U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti, vowing to make the impoverished
nation secure for elections on Feb. 7. He replaced another Brazilian who
committed suicide.
   Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho de Siqueira said the 9,000-strong U.N. force
was up to the task but that he would need the help of Haiti's 8 million
people.
   "I'm sure that we will provide the natural security for elections and
after the elections," de Siqueira said after he took command. "We are here
to help you and we know how to help you, but we are not enough. We must
have a lot of support from other parts of the country -- political,
economic and social."
   De Siqueira, 59, was previously based in Salvador, a city in
northeastern Brazil. He replaces Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar,
who shot himself in his hotel room in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Jan.
7.
   The special U.N. envoy to Haiti, Juan Valdes, said the general arrived
"at a crucial time," coming before "one of the most important elections in
recent history."
   Haiti's interim government said voter ID cards have been distributed to
85 percent of the 3.5 million people registered to vote. Thirty-five
candidates are running for president and hundreds more for 129 legislative
seats.
   The U.N. force was sent to help restore democracy after a bloody revolt
forced then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power nearly two years
ago. Since then, peacekeepers have waged frequent gunbattles with
well-armed street gangs blamed for a wave of kidnappings and killings in
the capital.
   Two Jordanian troops were gunned down last week at a checkpoint in Cite
Soleil, a violent slum on the edge of the capital teeming with loyalists of
Aristide.
   Residents there accused Jordanian peacekeepers of returning days later
and firing into the area, killing four civilians -- a charge the U.N. has
denied.
   De Siqueira said his troops would respect civilians. "We are here to
give people security, not to fight," he said.
   More than 1,500 people -- including 78 police officers and nine U.N.
peacekeepers -- have died in violence since Aristide fled Haiti in February
2004, local human rights activist Pierre Esperance said.