[Marxism] Brazil general rejects Powell call for bigger Haiti crackdowni

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brazil Rejects U.S. Call for Haiti Crackdown Reuters

Dec. 2, 2004 - U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti will not respond to
international pressure to "use violence" against armed gangs and will
rebuild the country as a "peacekeeping force, not an occupying force,"
the mission's Brazilian commander said on Thursday.

His comments and those of Brazil's foreign minister came a day after
Secretary of State Colin Powell demanded U.N troops crack down on street
gangs after gunfights broke out near him when he visited Haiti's interim
leader at the presidential palace.

"We are under extreme pressure from the international community to use
violence," General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro told a congressional
commission in Brazil. "I command a peacekeeping force, not an occupation
force ... we are not there to carry out violence, this will not happen
for as long as I'm in charge of the force."

He cited the United States, France and Canada among countries pressing
for the use of force against armed groups.

"To do this would require a force of 100,000 men prepared to seek and
kill in large numbers and this is not our role, nor do we want it,"
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Brazilian legislators.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent his nation's biggest ever U.N
peacekeeping force to Haiti in June as Brazil sought a role as a
regional crisis mediator and support for a permanent seat on the U.N.
Security Council.

The mission took over from a 3,773-strong U.S.-led force that entered
Haiti for two months after a February revolt forced former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee.

The mission has tried to use Brazilian football stars to disarm gang
members and has been criticized for being reluctant to intervene
directly in the violence that has gripped Haiti since Aristide left.
More than 200 people have been killed in the last three months in gang
and political violence.

Brazil is demanding U.N. donor nations deliver $1.2 billion in aid they
have promised to rebuild Haiti. 7

Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material
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