France considers sending peacekeeping force to Haiti: FM
PLA Daily 2004-02-18
PARIS, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- France envisions sending a multinational peacekeeping force to Haiti to end the 12-day-old uprising, which has claimed at least 56 lives, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Tuesday.
The French government is setting up a crisis unit in Paris on the situation, de Villepin said in an interview with French public radio France-Inter.
"Can we deploy a peacekeeping force?" said the minister, "We are in touch with all our partners within the framework of the United Nations, who have sent a humanitarian mission to see what can be done."
"I have demanded to form a crisis unit today at the foreign ministry to rally all French authorities to envision what we could do in immediate aids," he said.
"We have a platform, We have important assets close to Haiti with our department Antilles-Guyana. We have skills in the field of humanitarian interventions," he said.
"That is what we want to make available when the time comes," he added.
De Villepin made these remarks after Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide called on the international community for help with the crisis, which has seen rebels take over a great part of the north and center of his country and caused the death of 56 people since Feb. 5.
Aristide said late Monday that police have found it hard to deal with the chaotic situation in the country and that his government has appealed for "technical assistance" from the Organization of American States (OAS).
"We are seeing a growing crisis, with a risk of the country being partitioned," said the French minister, underlining that any intervention would have to be carried out after consultation with the parties involved in the conflict.
France ruled what is now Haiti in the 18th century.
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