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UN team prepares for Haiti peacekeeping mission
United Nations, Mar 09: A UN assessment team is due to arrive in Haiti today to help prepare for a peacekeeping mission to be deployed in the troubled Caribbean nation by June 1.
United Nations, Mar 09: A UN assessment team is due to arrive in Haiti today to help prepare for a peacekeeping mission to be deployed in the troubled Caribbean nation by June 1.
The team will spend the next three months in Haiti laying the groundwork for the broad UN peacekeeping operation, intended to help Haiti rebuild after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's departure in the face of an armed rebellion and international pressure, Chief Spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
One of the team's first tasks will be to help Secretary-General Kofi Annan make recommendations by the end of the month on the size and composition of the mission, in terms of troops, police, political staff and others. Separately, Annan's special adviser on Haiti, Reginald Dumas, is scheduled to make his first visit to Haiti next week, Eckhard said. Dumas was named to the new post on February 26 and has been conferring with leaders of Haiti's Caribbean neighbors in recent days.
The United Nations was also set today to launch an emergency appeal for aid contributions from wealthy nations.
The peacekeeping mission was authorized by the 15-nation UN Security Council in a resolution adopted on March 1. The UN operation is to take over from a US-led multinational force that began building up in Haiti a week ago, to restore order after Aristide's departure for the Central African Republic. The work of that force has been complicated by Aristide's charges that he was forced to leave Haiti and remains its president.
Bureau Report
One of the team's first tasks will be to help Secretary-General Kofi Annan make recommendations by the end of the month on the size and composition of the mission, in terms of troops, police, political staff and others. Separately, Annan's special adviser on Haiti, Reginald Dumas, is scheduled to make his first visit to Haiti next week, Eckhard said. Dumas was named to the new post on February 26 and has been conferring with leaders of Haiti's Caribbean neighbors in recent days.
The United Nations was also set today to launch an emergency appeal for aid contributions from wealthy nations.
The peacekeeping mission was authorized by the 15-nation UN Security Council in a resolution adopted on March 1. The UN operation is to take over from a US-led multinational force that began building up in Haiti a week ago, to restore order after Aristide's departure for the Central African Republic. The work of that force has been complicated by Aristide's charges that he was forced to leave Haiti and remains its president.
Bureau Report