US military team to assess embassy security in Haiti
PLA Daily 2004-02-20
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet)-- The United States announced Thursday that a military team of three or four people will leave for Haiti within the next 48 hours to make first-hand assessment of the security situation at the US embassy in the Haitian capitalof Port-au-Prince.
Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said the team, dispatched at the request of US Ambassador to Haiti James Foley, will "establish the security circumstances at the embassy and ensure the ambassador has all he needs to ensure that kind of security."
"Generally speaking ambassadors understand the responsibility they have to the country team to ensure all the kind of prudent plans that one would take in a circumstance such as this is being taken, and so he's asked for that kind of assistance," DiRita said.
He said all the three or four people of the team are from US Southern Command based in Miami, Florida.
Christopher Sherwood, a spokesman for the Southern Command, told reporters that the team's mission will focus on the security of the US embassy and will not assist the Haitian government in dealing with the ongoing political unrest which began early this month.
"They are not there to assist the Haitian government in any form. They're there only to assist the American ambassador and security issues for the ambassador and his people," Sherwood said.
The Bush administration has so far refused to send military or police forces to help quell the revolts in Haiti, saying that efforts should focus on seeking a political solution to the crisis.
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