27198: Hermantin(Newsl)Apparent suicide adds to Haiti's election turmoil (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Leonie Hermantin


U.N. commander found dead


Apparent suicide adds to Haiti's election turmoil



By Carol J. Williams
Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2006



MIAMI · The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti was found dead at 
an upscale hotel in the country's capital early Saturday with an apparently 
self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials in Port-au-Prince said.

The death of Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira Da Matta Bacellar, a Brazilian, seemed 
likely to further complicate the world body's long-thwarted efforts to bring 
stability to violence-racked Haiti and organize elections.

Haiti has been without an elected leader since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide 
fled an armed rebellion in February 2004. Presidential and parliamentary 
elections were to have been held in November but have been delayed repeatedly 
by the U.S.-backed interim leadership.

Bacellar, 58, was found in his suite at the Hotel Montana with a gunshot wound 
to the head and his service revolver nearby, according to Radio Metropole and 
other news agencies at the scene.

In a dispatch from Sao Paulo, the Brazilian army initially termed the general's 
death the result of a "firearms accident." In a later statement, the army said 
Brazilians "profoundly lamented" Bacellar's death and that army investigators 
would travel to Haiti today to conduct their own review of the shooting.

Chilean Gen. Eduardo Aldunate was put in charge of the military mission until 
Brazil replaces the commander of its 1,200 troops in Haiti, the largest 
contingent of the now 7,265-strong U.N. military deployment.

The contemplative soldier with snow-white hair and black eyebrows inherited 
command Aug. 31 and had witnessed a recent deterioration of security in the 
capital's teeming, gang-controlled slums.

An official of Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council, Rosemond Pradel, last 
week blamed the U.N. mission for the latest postponement of elections, citing 
its failure to halt escalating slum violence and a rash of kidnappings. Pradel 
confirmed that the vote scheduled for today was being called off but said no 
new election date could be set because of persistent security and 
organizational problems.

Alarmed by the delays, the U.N. Security Council and the Organization of 
American States convened special sessions Friday during which they instructed 
Haitian officials to cease infighting and to hold elections no later than Feb. 
7.

The OAS said in a statement that it sees "no valid technical reasons to 
continue postponing the elections," and that security issues "in no way justify 
further delay."

A U.S. diplomat in Port-au-Prince said the State Department considers the Feb. 
7 deadline feasible and does not believe Bacellar's death will affect the 
electoral calendar.

But Haitians point to the daily gunfights in gang-controlled neighborhoods such 
as Cite Soleil and Bel-Air and abductions for ransom as dangers preventing the 
setup of polling places in the most populous areas. Almost half the 3.4 million 
people who registered to vote still haven't received their ID cards or been 
told where they will cast their ballots.

Expressing the international community's mounting impatience, U.N. mission 
chief Juan Gabriel Valdes warned Friday that the troops under Bacellar's 
command and some of the 1,700-plus U.N. police in Haiti would occupy Cite 
Soleil to break up the crime and kidnapping rings.

Bacellar, as well as his Brazilian predecessor in the mission's command, had 
been on record as opposing any use of U.N. force that could endanger 
bystanders. In an October interview with the Los Angeles Times, Bacellar said 
his troops stayed out of certain areas of the capital "to avoid collateral 
damage."

A serious and outwardly serene career soldier, Bacellar described his mission 
in strictly military terms, discussing deployments, patrolling and readiness 
while professing little knowledge of the U.N.'s longer-term political 
objectives of seating a legitimate government.

The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Co. newspaper.