EvanL
02-18-2004, 01:06 PM
International force might be established if political solution found, Graham says
By JEFF SALLOT
UPDATED AT 1:03 PM EST Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004
Advertisement
OTTAWA -- Canada could send up to 100 police officers to Haiti as part of an international stabilization force if President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and rebels agree to resolve differences peacefully, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said yesterday as diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis picked up pace.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he is staying in close touch with senior diplomats from Haiti's Caribbean neighbours and with the Organization of American States about how the international community "should become much more actively engaged" in the crisis.
"And so, I may have some announcement in the next few days," Mr. Annan added.
Meanwhile, Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune appealed for unspecified international help to deal with the uprising because the country's 5,000-member police force can't cope with the unrest in about a dozen towns.
"We are witnessing the coup d'état machine in motion," Mr. Neptune told reporters in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
He refused to say whether he is seeking foreign military intervention to prop up the government.
In any event, Canada, the United States and other Western countries say they will not provide military or police assistance until the rebels and the Aristide government agree on some sort of peaceful political process leading up to elections.
Mr. Graham said Canada could provide about 100 French-speaking police officers to help maintain peace if conditions were right.
"But I want to make it very clear that it would only be if there is a political solution in Haiti and we are acting in conjunction with other countries such as the United States, the Bahamas and others," Mr. Graham said.
The Bahamas and other countries in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have been trying to act as mediators in the current conflict, which has taken the lives of about 50 people.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that there is no interest in Washington in sending soldiers or police officers to Haiti until rebels and the government agree on some sort of political solution. Only then would there be "willing nations that would come forward with a police presence to implement the political agreement."
In Paris, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the French government, which has military garrisons in the Caribbean, could deploy resources to its former colony quickly for a "humanitarian intervention" if the violence ends and political dialogue resumes.
In Ottawa, International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll announced Canadian emergency humanitarian assistance totalling $1.1-million to be funnelled through aid agencies that continue to function in Haiti.
Aid agencies, meanwhile, called for urgent international action, warning that Haiti is on "the verge of a generalized civil war."
President Aristide, a former slum priest who was ousted in a coup in 1991 but reinstated by a U.S.-led military force three years later and re-elected in 2000, is accused by opposition politicians of using the police and armed militants to stamp out dissent.
The opposition also says corrupt officials are plundering the treasury while ordinary Haitians sink deeper into poverty.
By JEFF SALLOT
UPDATED AT 1:03 PM EST Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004
Advertisement
OTTAWA -- Canada could send up to 100 police officers to Haiti as part of an international stabilization force if President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and rebels agree to resolve differences peacefully, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said yesterday as diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis picked up pace.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he is staying in close touch with senior diplomats from Haiti's Caribbean neighbours and with the Organization of American States about how the international community "should become much more actively engaged" in the crisis.
"And so, I may have some announcement in the next few days," Mr. Annan added.
Meanwhile, Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune appealed for unspecified international help to deal with the uprising because the country's 5,000-member police force can't cope with the unrest in about a dozen towns.
"We are witnessing the coup d'état machine in motion," Mr. Neptune told reporters in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
He refused to say whether he is seeking foreign military intervention to prop up the government.
In any event, Canada, the United States and other Western countries say they will not provide military or police assistance until the rebels and the Aristide government agree on some sort of peaceful political process leading up to elections.
Mr. Graham said Canada could provide about 100 French-speaking police officers to help maintain peace if conditions were right.
"But I want to make it very clear that it would only be if there is a political solution in Haiti and we are acting in conjunction with other countries such as the United States, the Bahamas and others," Mr. Graham said.
The Bahamas and other countries in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have been trying to act as mediators in the current conflict, which has taken the lives of about 50 people.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that there is no interest in Washington in sending soldiers or police officers to Haiti until rebels and the government agree on some sort of political solution. Only then would there be "willing nations that would come forward with a police presence to implement the political agreement."
In Paris, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the French government, which has military garrisons in the Caribbean, could deploy resources to its former colony quickly for a "humanitarian intervention" if the violence ends and political dialogue resumes.
In Ottawa, International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll announced Canadian emergency humanitarian assistance totalling $1.1-million to be funnelled through aid agencies that continue to function in Haiti.
Aid agencies, meanwhile, called for urgent international action, warning that Haiti is on "the verge of a generalized civil war."
President Aristide, a former slum priest who was ousted in a coup in 1991 but reinstated by a U.S.-led military force three years later and re-elected in 2000, is accused by opposition politicians of using the police and armed militants to stamp out dissent.
The opposition also says corrupt officials are plundering the treasury while ordinary Haitians sink deeper into poverty.