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US, Canada, France to send troops to Haiti

PLA Daily 2004-03-01

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhuanet) -- As US President George W. Bush had ordered a contingent of US Marines to Haiti on Sunday, Canada and France were also committed to send troops to the chaotic Caribbean country.

Speaking to reporters on returning to the White House after a weekend at the Camp David retreat, Bush said: "I have ordered a deployment of Marines as the leading element of an interim international force to help bring order and stability to Haiti."

A 500-strong US Marine force was reportedly ready to leave for Haiti by air as early as Sunday to help refugee repatriation by the US Coast Guard at one or more Haitian ports.

In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said that Canada is committed to joining a stabilization force in Haiti,despite the fact that the country's military is already stretched by commitments in Afghanistan and Bosnia.

Canada already has a small number of troops guarding the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. Three Canadian military aircraft landed in Haiti on Saturday to ferry people out of the country if necessary.

After learning Sunday about the resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Graham spoke with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and was told American forces will be arriving in Haiti today to help secure peace.

Canada is eager to help in Haiti, Graham said, because it is a Francophone country and because of the many Haitian immigrants living here.

In Paris, the French army said that some 200 military French troops staying in France's overseas department of Antilles in the Caribbean region will join an international force in Haiti in the coming hours and some 100 gendarmes will arrive on the crisis-hit island on Monday.

The French troops will protect the French nationals on the island where Aristide flew out earlier on Sunday following a three-week rebellion that threw the country into chaos, said a spokesman of the staff of the French armies.

A spokeswoman of the French presidency said France is ready to participate if an international peace force is to be deployed.