30014: (news) Chamberlain: UN Council readies extension of Haiti mission (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michelle Nichols

     UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is
expected to renew its peacekeeping mission in Haiti for eight months on
Thursday in a resolution that asks troops to step up operations in slums to
fight criminal gangs.
     The United States and the U.N. secretary-general's office recommended
a one year extension when the mandate expires on Thursday. So did a Haiti
advisory group that includes Canada, Brazil, Britain, France.
     But China, which has no diplomatic ties with Haiti, argued for a
six-month renewal so the council could have better oversight. The
compromise was to renew the peacekeeping mission for eight months, until
Oct. 15.
     A U.N. force -- currently 6,800 troops and nearly 2,000 police --
returned to Haiti shortly after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
ousted in an armed rebellion in February 2004.
     The U.N. resolution, drafted by Peru, requests that peacekeepers
increase the "tempo of operations" against criminal gangs "as deemed
necessary to restore security, notably in Port-au-Prince," in conjunction
with national police.
     Hundreds of U.N. soldiers stormed a slum in Haiti's capital
Port-au-Prince on Friday to try to wrest control from a gang, setting off a
gunfight that killed one person and wounded several, including two
peacekeepers.
     Although politically motivated violence appears to have eased since
President Rene Preval was elected almost a year ago, poverty, joblessness
and the drug trade fuel widespread crime. And the judicial system is in
shambles.
     The draft resolution "deplores and condemns in the strongest terms any
attack against personnel from the U.N. Mission in Haiti, known by its
French acronym as MINUSTAH.
     It demands that no acts of intimidation or violence be directed
against U.N. personnel and other international and humanitarian
organizations.
     According to the International Crisis Group, violent and organized
crime threaten to overwhelm Haiti because the justice system is too
dysfunctional to cope with it.
     "The judiciary is encumbered by incompetence and corruption, partly
due to inadequate pay," the ICG said. Some 96 percent of the inmates at the
National Penitentiary are kept without trial.