19906: (Chamberlain) Canada sends 450 troops for Haiti force (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     MIAMI, March 5 (Reuters) - The following countries are among those
that will send troops to help stabilize Haiti.
     The troops will comprise the second international force sent to Haiti
within 10 years. A U.S.-led force of 20,000 occupied Haiti in 1994 to end a
military dictatorship and restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after he
was ousted in a 1991 coup.
     Aristide resigned as president and fled Haiti on Sunday, facing U.S.
pressure and a rebellion that had raged since Feb. 5.
     -- Canada, which has about 100 soldiers in Haiti, said on Friday it
will send another 450 to a new multinational force to help restore order
over the next three months. The Canadians said the 100 troops already there
would return home.
     -- The United States said it will have about 1,500 troops in Haiti by
the end of the day on Friday. Besides increasing their visible presence in
Port-au-Prince, they have begun to fan out beyond the Haitian capital. U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said Washington will send up to about
2,000 troops to head an international stability force numbering less than
5,000, but hopes to hand over leadership of the force to another country.
     -- France said on Friday it has about 800 troops in Haiti, but Paris
rejected accusations it was part of a foreign "occupation." The foreign
ministry said its only interest was defending Haitian democracy.
     -- Chile has sent about 130 troops, and that number was expected to
rise to 300.
     -- French President Jacques Chirac and U.N. Security-General Kofi
Annan want Brazil to lead a broad U.N. peacekeeping mission due to go into
Haiti in three months, Brazil's government said. A spokesman for President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Brazil would send 1,100 troops to contribute
to this second phase of the U.N. operation in Haiti.