Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 1, 1994 TAG: 9408010079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS LENGTH: Medium
The resolution authorizing the use of force passed by a vote of 12-0. China and Brazil abstained. The 15th member of the council, Rwanda, was absent for the vote.
The resolution, which gives no timetable for the possible invasion, ``authorizes member states to form a multinational force under unified command and control and ... to use all necessary means to facilitate the departure from Haiti of the military leadership.''
The resolution also calls for the deployment of a 6,000-member U.N. force following any invasion.
U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said the council's message to the Haitian military was that ``you can depart voluntarily and soon, or you can depart involuntarily and soon. The sun is setting on your ruthless ambition.''
Albright said the United States ``is prepared to organize and lead'' an invasion force. ``We seek - and anticipate - that others will join,'' she said.
``We hope that the current military leaders will depart voluntarily and that the military force will not be opposed. But this resolution authorizes action whether or not our hopes are realized.''
China, which abstained, expressed uneasiness at the vote. Its ambassador, Li Zhaoxing, said the resolution ``will doubtlessly create a dangerous precedent.''
Several Latin American states said they feared the resolution would set a precedent for U.S. intervention in the region. ``The crisis in Haiti is not a threat to peace,'' Ambassador Victor Flores Olea of Mexico told the Council. ``From the standpoint of history, military intervention in our hemisphere has invariably been traumatic.''
Haitian Ambassador Fritz Longchamp, who represents the Aristide government, welcomed the outcome.
``The Haitian community would like as much as possible to avoid military action, but there is no alternative to getting rid of the military,'' he said after the vote. Albright told NBC television's ``Meet the Press'' on Sunday that Latin American countries were concerned about ``some trend in intervention that is absolutely not true.''
Aristide sent a letter to the United Nations on Friday calling on the international community to ``take prompt and decisive action under the authority of the United Nations'' to restore democracy in Haiti.
Most council members, especially Latin American countries, said they would need clearance from Aristide before they could approve a possible U.S.-led invasion.
The Haitian military ousted Aristide in 1991 and has defied a worldwide trade and oil embargo and a U.S. ban on most financial transactions with Haiti.
U.S. forces finished four days of war exercises near Puerto Rico on Saturday and steamed toward Haiti to resume patrols off the coast of the Caribbean island.
by CNB