25536: Hermantin( News)U.S.: No troops for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Jul. 01, 2005


HAITI
U.S.: No troops for Haiti
American soldiers will not be dispatched to Haiti, despite pleas for help from 
the United Nations, U.S. officials said.
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@herald.com

WASHINGTON - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has issued a private 
plea for U.S. troops for Haiti, underscoring an urgent need to stem rising 
violence so that successful elections can be carried out.

But even as the United States remains concerned and is closely monitoring 
developments, there are no plans to add American soldiers to the 7,400-strong 
multinational U.N. peacekeeping force already in place, officials said 
Thursday.

''We continue to believe that a focused and robust response by MINUSTAH [the 
U.N. peacekeeping force] is the key to security in Haiti and will lay the 
groundwork for successful elections and economic growth in the lonng term,'' 
said a State Department spokesman.

Annan's request, made Tuesday during a meeting with Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice, comes as Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince is besieged 
with deadly shootouts and kidnappings. The lawlessness is hampering 
preparations for elections later this year to replace the interim government 
installed after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled amid an armed revolt 1 ½ 
years ago.

Most of the turmoil is emerging from slums teeming with armed gangs still loyal 
to Aristide.

The U.N. Security Council has approved the dispatch of an additional 1,000 
troops made up of rapid-response units to bring an end to the violence, which 
has triggered fierce gun battles between U.N. peacekeepers and street thugs.

On Wednesday, at least six gunmen were killed during an eight-hour offensive 
carried out by Brazilian troops in Bel-Air, one of the capital's toughest 
slums.

According to the Washington Post, Annan told Rice that he may have to ask for 
American ''boots on the ground'' in the coming months to reinforce the 
Brazilian, Chilean, Argentine and other peacekeeping forces now serving in 
Haiti.

Annan told Rice that American forces were needed because Haitians ''respect the 
U.S. military,'' the Post reported.

But the State Department said that what is needed is ''robust'' operations like 
the one carried out in Bel-Air.

''We believe that the additional number of troops and police provided for [by 
the U.N.], combined with the focused effort targeting those violent actors who 
are creating the instability in Haiti, like the operation we saw carried out in 
Bel-Air, will establish a secure environment,'' said the spokesman, who cannot 
be identified due to State Department policy.

``It is essential that the [U.N.] Secretary General work with troops and police 
contributors to ensure that MINUSTAH reaches its new force ceiling quickly to 
safeguard the electoral process, particularly ongoing voter registration and 
campaigning.''