27433: Arthur (news) UN Official Predicts More "Collateral Damage" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

UN Official Predicts More "Collateral Damage"
Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 (IPS) - As Haitians prepare to go to the polls next
month to elect a new political leadership, human rights groups have urged the
United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country against taking any military
action that could harm innocent civilians.

"The problems of lawlessness, kidnapping and gang warfare cannot be addressed
by military action," says Charles Arthur, director of the Haiti Support
Group, in a letter sent to the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The London-based group, which has been involved in human rights and democracy
campaigns in Haiti for over a decade, took a senior U.N. official to task for
suggesting that the peacekeeping forces in Haiti were ready to launch a
military offensive in the Cite Soleil area of Port-au-Prince before the elections.

"We are going to intervene in the coming days," Annan's special
representative Juan Gabriel Valdes told a local radio station in a recent interview. "I
think there will be collateral damage, but we have to impose our force. There is
no other way."

Cite Soleil is a working class neighbourhood in the capital, where a vast
majority of residents support Lavalas, a political movement aligned with the
ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who is now living in exile in South
Africa.

The human rights group said it was deeply concerned about the special
representative's comments because they came at a time when the U.N. itself had
admitted that innocent civilians had died as the result of a raid on Cite Soleil in
July 2005.

Initially, the U.N. had tried to brush aside charges that its forces had
killed civilians, but in the wake of growing pressure from human rights groups, it
agreed to conduct an inquiry.

The U.N. report on the July incident states that, "Given the length of the
operation and the violence of the clashes," a number of civilians "may have been
caught in crossfire" between peacekeepers and armed gang members.

U.N. officials in Haiti describe armed youth in Cite Soleil as gangsters, but
activists working in the area say that many young adults have taken up guns
to protect themselves from police brutality and oppression.

Though mindful that the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti is "under immense
pressure" from certain sections of Haitian society to take stronger action in
Cite Soleil, Arthur said military action was not the answer.

"We do not believe that military action potentially involving a loss of
civilian lives is either acceptable or a correct strategy on the part of the United
Nations mission in Haiti," he said.

Asked to comment on Valdes' use of the term "collateral damage", Ari
Gaitanis, a U.N. spokesman, told IPS: "There are clear guidelines for our peacekeepers
in Haiti. We always try to ensure that no civilians are hurt."

Arthur said his organisation was aware of the criminal actions of armed gangs
in Cite Soleil, but added that there were alternatives to a military assault
on the area.

He noted that Brazilian peacekeeping troops have had some success in another
neighbourhood called Bel Air by using a strategy based on negotiation,
confidence-building and humanitarian relief work.

"This approach has facilitated the establishment of a permanent U.N.
peacekeeping base in Bel Air. Could not a similar approach be tried in Cite Soleil?"
Arthur asked Annan in his letter.

The group has suggested to the U.N. that in order to deal with urban
violence, it should increase the number of trained police officers in Haiti instead of
using military forces.

"If the international community is serious about restoring law and order in
Haiti," Arthur said, "it has to realise that a significant increase in U.N.
civilian police is desperately required."

As a result of last July's civilian deaths in Cite Soleil and subsequent
assaults on the neighbourhood, the U.N. is facing a growing wave of anger and
protest in Haiti.

"I think there has been clearly a campaign against the mission in Haiti,"
Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujjaric told reporters this week.

"This is a very delicate time, as we approach the election," he said. "We
would want to see in Haiti a climate which would allow for these elections to be
conducted in a fair and calm way."

Citing violence and insecurity as major factors, Haiti's U.S.-backed interim
government has postponed the elections four times. They are now due to be held
on Feb. 7. This week, the Organisation of American States (OAS), which
includes the United States, renewed its call to hold the forthcoming polls on time.

The 35-member regional group has also urged all presidential candidates to
publicly denounce all forms of violence in the run-up to the elections, as well
as during and after, to promote an environment of peace and unity.

Currently, there are more than three million registered voters in Haiti.
Polls suggest that Rene Preval, an Aristide ally, is expected to win. (END/2006)

www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org