[R-G] ANNAN ASKS US TO SEND TROOPS TO HAITI

[Anthony Fenton]

>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/ 
> AR2005062902918_pf.html
>
> washingtonpost.com
>
>  Annan Makes Plea For Troops in Haiti
>
> By Colum Lynch
>  Washington Post Staff Writer
>  Thursday, June 30, 2005; A18
>
> UNITED NATIONS, June 29 -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan  
> asked the United States this week to consider sending troops to Haiti  
> to support a U.N. peacekeeping mission beset by mounting armed  
> challenges to its authority, according to senior U.N. officials.
>
> Annan told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a meeting at U.N.  
> headquarters Tuesday afternoon that he may have to ask for American  
> "boots on the ground" in the coming months to reinforce more than  
> 6,500 Brazilian, Chilean, Argentine and other peacekeeping forces  
> serving in Haiti, the officials said.
>
> He expressed hope that the United States would participate in a  
> planned U.N. rapid reaction force that would have the firepower to  
> intimidate armed gangs threatening the country's fragile political  
> transition. Officials said that similar requests are being considered  
> for other countries, including Canada and France. "We want scarier  
> troops," one senior U.N. official said.
>
> Annan told Rice that the Haitians "respect the U.S. military,"  
> according to a senior U.N. diplomat familiar with the closed-door  
> meeting. Annan added that the United Nations may make a formal request  
> for troops later, the diplomat said.
>
> The plea from Annan comes weeks after Rice questioned the need for  
> U.S. military intervention in Haiti, saying that it would be a  
> "mistake" to abandon confidence in the ability of the Brazilian-led  
> peacekeeping force to do the job. Rice provided Annan with no pledges  
> of military support, officials said, but offered to help persuade  
> France and Canada to contribute to the mission.
>
> Following the meeting, Annan's office made no specific mention of  
> Annan's suggestion about U.S. troops. Instead, Annan's spokesman  
> issued a statement saying that the U.N. chief had highlighted the  
> "need for greater military support" for the U.N. mission during his  
> talks with Rice.
>
> The Pentagon has been weighing a request from the U.S. ambassador to  
> Haiti, James B. Foley, and other senior U.S. officials to present an  
> American show of force in the troubled Caribbean island nation,  
> according to U.S. officials. The officials, who said they were  
> unauthorized to speak publicly on the issue, expressed concern that  
> violence could spiral out of control, threatening the country's  
> municipal and presidential elections scheduled for October and  
> December.
>
> U.S. and U.N. officials have begun a series of preliminary discussions  
> about a possible U.S. military role in Haiti, including the provision  
> of logistical and intelligence support to the planned U.N. rapid  
> reaction force, according to senior U.N. diplomats. But the diplomats  
> said that the United States, which currently has only four military  
> staff officers serving in the U.N. mission, has made no formal  
> commitment to expand its military presence.
>
> The chief U.N. peacekeeping official, Jean-Marie Guehenno of France,  
> declined to discuss the specifics of any military contacts with  
> Washington. "At the moment, we are discussing a range of options," he  
> said. "We don't exclude any options."
>
> The Bush administration sent U.S. troops into Haiti in March 2004 to  
> halt an upsurge of violence that culminated in former Haitian  
> President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's flight from Haiti. A Brazilian-led  
> U.N. peacekeeping force replaced the United States as the country's  
> chief guarantor of security.
>
> But the largely Latin American force has come under criticism for  
> failing to respond aggressively enough to challenges from criminal  
> gangs and other armed groups once linked to Aristide or to the  
> country's business elites.
>
> In an effort to strengthen the mission, the Security Council adopted a  
> resolution last week authorizing the creation of a 750-member rapid  
> reaction force to respond to the violence in the months leading up to  
> elections.
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