Global Policy Forum

By Evelyn Leopold

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to add 1,000 soldiers and police to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti ahead of planned elections in October. A resolution adopted by the 15-nation body also extended the operation's mandate until Feb 15, "with the intention to renew for further periods."

Specifically, the council approved U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposal to dispatch temporarily 750 troops for a rapid reaction force in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince. Another 50 military personnel would be added to coordinate operations at headquarters.

And the resolution provided 275 civilian police in the run up to elections and the subsequent transition progress. This would bring the Brazilian-led U.N. military personnel to 7,500 from the current 6,700 and raise the number of police to 1,897 from 1,622.

The United Nations sent peacekeepers to Haiti to help prop up an interim government appointed after Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's last elected president, fled into exile in South Africa in February 2004 under foreign pressure and in the face of a violent rebellion.

To restore an elected government, local elections are to be held on Oct. 9 and legislative and presidential elections are scheduled for Nov. 13, with a run-off set for Dec. 18. But voter registration and other procedures are falling behind schedule in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Council members had delayed the vote for a month while the Bush administration sought permission from Congress and China had misgivings about a one-year mandate many council members had wanted. Instead they compromised on eight months to make sure the peacekeepers were on hand during the election process.

While China has contributed a contingent of riot police to the U.N. mission, it does not have diplomatic relations with Haiti, which recognizes Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

Haitian leaders have complained that the peacekeeping mission failed to help local authorities keep order among street gangs in the capital. At the same time Aristide loyalists accuse peacekeepers of not preventing police from rampages against them. And the New York-based Human Rights Watch last month reported that the Haitian military, particularly in the provinces, committed "rampant abuses, including kidnappings, illegal detentions and extortions" with police often outgunned and outnumbered.

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