UN chief Ban Ki-moon has asked the Security Council to approve 3,500 more peacekeepers for Haiti -- a nearly 40% increase -- to help cope with the chaos that followed last week's earthquake. Diplomats said they expected a vote in the 15-nation council tomorrow to authorize the temporary boost for the UN mission.
The secretary-general briefed the Security Council in a closed-door session Monday morning, less than 12 hours after he returned from the Haitian capital. His plane back to New York carried the body of Hedi Annabi, the U.N.'s chief representative in Haiti, who perished when U.N. headquarters crumbled in the earthquake. Mr. Ban told reporters the extra U.N. police and troops were needed to protect aid convoys and distribution points in the devastated city. A Western diplomat who was inside the council chamber for the closed Security Council session said the U.S. had already circulated a draft resolution authorizing the increase of blue helmets, and that the Security Council would vote on it at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
Questions about coordination and command continue to fester. The governments of France, Italy, and Brazil, as well as aid agencies such as Doctors Without Borders, have reportedly complained that the U.S. military is giving priority to security over aid as it determines what flights are allowed to arrive at the tiny, one-runway airport in Port-au-Prince. Mr. Ban said both were needed. He reiterated that the U.N., and not the U.S., was in charge of the relief effort. American military officials at the airport said that it had 100 slots for incoming planes, roughly triple the number landing there before the quake but far fewer than the number of planes trying to reach Haiti with relief supplies and personnel.
"The international community supports the United Nations to take the leading role as coordinator, there is no doubt about that," he said. In Haiti on Sunday Mr. Ban said that U.N. troops would be working in tandem with U.S. troops, about 12,000 of which are expected eventually in the country. Mr. Ban evaded the hardest question of command and control, which is whether U.N. troops would come under U.S. command. On Sunday, Brazil, which has the largest contingent of U.N. troops, said it would not relinquish command of its forces to the U.S.
The U.N. has 7,000 troops in Haiti, with 3,000 deployed in Port-au-Prince, and American troops continued to arrive in Haiti Monday. More than 1,000 soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division are on the ground in Haiti, with an additional 300 slated to arrive Monday and the unit's remaining 2,300 soldiers arriving by Tuesday. The amphibious ship U.S.S. Bataan, carrying 2,200 Marines, is scheduled reach Haiti later Monday. Capt. John Kirby, the lead military spokesman in Haiti, said that some of the U.S. soldiers were flying aboard Marine helicopters to drop supplies through Port-au-Prince. He said that other soldiers from the 82nd were providing security at one of the Haitian government's four official distribution points for relief supplies.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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