27171: Craig (news) USA Today: Death of U.N. leader comes amid growing instability (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


Posted 1/8/2006 10:19 PM
Death of U.N. leader in Haiti comes amid growing instability
By Danna Harman, USA TODAY

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Business leaders called for a general strike Monday, 
two days after the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti was found 
dead of an apparent suicide.

The strike, orchestrated by Haiti's largest business association, was organized 
before the death of Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar on Saturday. It 
was called to protest growing lawlessness and to pressure the multinational 
United Nations force under Bacellar's command to get tough with gangs.

Bacellar was found slumped over on the balcony of his Port-au-Prince hotel 
room. His gun was found by his side.

A senior U.N. official told the Associated Press that Bacellar, 58, suffered a 
self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The official spoke on condition of 
anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose information to the media.

The Brazilian commander's death comes amid growing anarchy in the capital, 
particularly in the sprawling Cité Soleil slum. Bacellar took command of the 
9,000-member U.N. force on Aug. 31. Security has deteriorated under his watch.

The U.N. mission, comprising troops and police from more than 40 countries, has 
been under pressure to act more forcefully to confront armed gangs responsible 
for a wave of recent kidnappings.

Seven peacekeepers have been killed in action in Haiti since the force was 
deployed in June 2004, the United Nations says.

Bacellar's death also comes amid increasing tensions here over efforts to hold 
national elections for the first time since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide 
was ousted in a rebellion and fled the country nearly two years ago.

Haiti's interim government has postponed elections four times. On Sunday, the 
Provisional Electoral Council set a new date — Feb. 7 — for first-round 
balloting and a possible second round on March 19.

Thirty-five presidential candidates are running, along with 1,300 hopefuls 
vying for 129 seats in parliament. Three-and-a-half million Haitians are 
registered to vote. Campaign jingles have been running on the radio for months. 
But other preparations are in shambles:

• Only half of those registered have received their voting cards, the election 
commission says.

• At least a dozen politicians, including Charles Baker, one of the 
front-runners, have complained that the 803 voting stations are too few and far 
apart to meet demand.

• Tens of thousands of voters are listed at the wrong addresses, the election 
commission says.

Security fears have soared as the number of kidnappings has spiked to an 
average of 20 a day.

"The best you can say is that this process has been a political, technical, 
logistical and financial fiasco," says Mark Schneider, senior vice president of 
the International Crisis Group, a Washington-based group that monitors global 
conflicts.

Harman is Latin America bureau chief for USA TODAY and /The Christian Science 
Monitor.

Contributing: Wire reports.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-08-peacekeeper-death_x.htm