EvanL
03-12-2004, 11:54 AM
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/troopshaiti_cp_5584389.jpg
Soldiers head to a C-130 aircraft at the airport in Fredericton, N.B, bound for Haiti
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/troopshaiti_cp_5583933.jpg
Cpl. Patrick Philippeaux checks his gear before leaving for Haiti.
(CP Photo)
FREDERICTON - Canadian soldiers from bases in New Brunswick and Ontario shipped out Friday morning to join an international peacekeeping force in Haiti.
About 35 soldiers from CFB Gagetown and another 45 from the army's Joint Operations Group in Kingston will be the first of some 450 military personnel that Canada has committed to the Haiti operation.
The next group of Canadian troops is expected to arrive in Haiti next week.
The Caribbean country has been wracked by violence since a rebel uprising forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee the tiny Caribbean nation on Feb. 29.
Aristide has insisted that he was forcibly removed from the country by U.S. troops, and has called on his remaining supporters in Haiti to resist the imposition of a new regime.
U.S. officials continue to deny Aristide's allegations, noting that they only escorted him out of Haiti after Aristide submitted his written resignation as president.
Meanwhile, Aristide will travel to Jamaica next week from his temporary exile in the Central African Republic, the Jamaican prime minister said Thursday.
"Mr. Aristide has expressed a wish to return temporarily to the Caribbean with his wife and to be reunited with their two young children, who are currently in the United States," Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said in a statement.
Patterson said Aristide would stay in Jamaica for up to 10 weeks, but was not seeking political asylum there.
While it's not known where Aristide will eventually take up a residence in exile, there was a report Friday that one of his government's most senior officials had been arrested in Toronto.
The Toronto Sun said that Oriel Jean, Aristide's right-hand man and security chief, was detained Wednesday at Pearson International Airport after arriving on a flight from the Dominican Republic.
The Sun said Jean was taken in custody on suspicion of crimes against humanity.
Written by CBC News Online staff
Soldiers head to a C-130 aircraft at the airport in Fredericton, N.B, bound for Haiti
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/troopshaiti_cp_5583933.jpg
Cpl. Patrick Philippeaux checks his gear before leaving for Haiti.
(CP Photo)
FREDERICTON - Canadian soldiers from bases in New Brunswick and Ontario shipped out Friday morning to join an international peacekeeping force in Haiti.
About 35 soldiers from CFB Gagetown and another 45 from the army's Joint Operations Group in Kingston will be the first of some 450 military personnel that Canada has committed to the Haiti operation.
The next group of Canadian troops is expected to arrive in Haiti next week.
The Caribbean country has been wracked by violence since a rebel uprising forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee the tiny Caribbean nation on Feb. 29.
Aristide has insisted that he was forcibly removed from the country by U.S. troops, and has called on his remaining supporters in Haiti to resist the imposition of a new regime.
U.S. officials continue to deny Aristide's allegations, noting that they only escorted him out of Haiti after Aristide submitted his written resignation as president.
Meanwhile, Aristide will travel to Jamaica next week from his temporary exile in the Central African Republic, the Jamaican prime minister said Thursday.
"Mr. Aristide has expressed a wish to return temporarily to the Caribbean with his wife and to be reunited with their two young children, who are currently in the United States," Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said in a statement.
Patterson said Aristide would stay in Jamaica for up to 10 weeks, but was not seeking political asylum there.
While it's not known where Aristide will eventually take up a residence in exile, there was a report Friday that one of his government's most senior officials had been arrested in Toronto.
The Toronto Sun said that Oriel Jean, Aristide's right-hand man and security chief, was detained Wednesday at Pearson International Airport after arriving on a flight from the Dominican Republic.
The Sun said Jean was taken in custody on suspicion of crimes against humanity.
Written by CBC News Online staff