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New UN military chief in haiti vows stabilization Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23339344.htmhttp://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23339344.htm
New UN military chief in Haiti vows stabilization
24 Jan 2006 00:03:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The new commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti said as he took charge on Monday that his troops were not sent on a combat mission but deployed to stabilize the troubled Caribbean country before a crucial election next month.
Brazilian Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho Siqueira said the U.N. troops were not an occupation force and had no plan to violate the rights of innocent people living in volatile slums, as several human rights groups have charged.
"The mandate is very clear. We are not an occupation force, we are a stabilization force," Elito said.
Several business leaders have been pressing U.N. troops to raid Cite Soleil, Haiti's largest slum, to fight criminal gangs who take refuge in the area on the edge of the capital.
Weapons and violence have proliferated across Haiti as it lurches toward its first national election since 2000. A presidential vote, originally scheduled for November, is now due on Feb. 7, after repeated delays caused by incompetence, bloodletting and logistical problems in the poorest country in the Americas.
An earlier statement by the U.N. envoy to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, about a large-scale military operation being contemplated at the beginning of this month to flush armed gangs out of Cite Soleil, predicted "collateral damage." It prompted several human rights groups to accuse the United Nations of preparing a massacre in the slum.
"We are here to provide security, to help the people, not to fight," explained the new force commander, who said he will improve some plans already set up to secure the election.
Elito, 59, replaced another Brazilian general, Urano Da Matta Bacellar, who killed himself two weeks ago in his hotel room in Port-au-Prince.
The U.N. force is comprised of some 9,000 peacekeepers including 7,473 soldiers commanded by Elito. The U.N. police component is led by Canadian commissioner Graham Muir.
Elito and Valdes, who spoke at a transfer of command ceremony at the Brazilian military base, described Haiti's security situation and their assignment as complex. But they said plans have been made to meet the challenges and to neutralize any groups seeking to stir violence during the balloting.
"We are going to control the movement of the bandits. We are not going to allow them to disrupt the election process," Valdes said.
Jacques Bernard, director general of the Provisional Electoral Council, said on Monday that voting stations would be removed from Cite Soleil as a protective measure for Feb. 7.
He said the decision was prompted by insecurity in the lawless ghetto and to help ensure that gangs there would not influence the election.
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