- Title: HAITI: SPANISH MARINES ARE ARRIVING TO JOIN UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING FORCES
- Date: 27th October 2004
- Summary: (W8) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (OCTOBER 28, 2004)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF CARS BURNING IN THE STREET 0.06 2. SLV SOLDIERS PATROLLING WITH WEAPONS 0.13 3. VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS PATROLLING ROAD/ AUDIO OF FIRING 0.23 4. CLOSE OF MASKED SOLDIER STANDING BY WALL 0.27 4. WIDE OF PEOPLE LOOKING ON 0.33 5. PULLOUT OFF SM
- Embargoed: 11th November 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: OCTOBER27,2004 AND OCTOBER28,2004
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVA34V3VCMH39MJD5YVA5K2VEMLQ
- Story Text: As violence plagues Haiti, Spanish marines are
arriving to join U.N. peacekeeping force.
Sporadic fighting between loyalists of former
president Jean-Bertrand Aristides and UN troops intensified
in Port-Au-Prince on Thursday (October 28), as two hundred
Spanish marines approached Cap Haitien to reinforce the
U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
Troops from Sri Lanka are due as well to bring the
peacekeepers to 3,692, a little over half of the U.N.
force's authorized strength of 6,700 soldiers.
The mission, charged with restoring order in
impoverished Haiti after president Aristide was ousted in
February, has been hampered from the start by a shortage of
promised international troops and police.
Aristide was forced out after a revolt killed more than
200 people.
Supporters of the former president blame the interim
government for recent violence. The government blames
Aristide for inciting demonstrations from South Africa,
where he is in exile.
U.N. officials said the Spanish troops, equipped with
armored vehicles, would form a joint brigade with 150
Moroccan troops due to arrive in the northern town of Cap
Haitien on Sunday.
Haiti is now run by an interim government charged with
organizing elections. But many Aristide supporters are
still furious over his departure and the country is awash
with arms.
Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker said that
Brazil and Chile were pushing the government to reach a
political truce and stem the violence.
U.N. special envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes, a Chilean
diplomat, has also urged the government to bring
sparring political groups to the negotiating table.
Anxious to reach their final destination the Spanish
soldiers are optimistic about their mission in Haiti.
When asked how he felt about the task at hand, one
unidentified soldier said: "A little nervous but I really want to do
th
is job. We're going to stabilise the country,
to do something for this country that had suffered a lot,"
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