Sending forces to Haiti not on the agenda, says French Defense Ministry

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 20, 2004

Sending forces to Haiti not on the agenda, says French Defense Ministry

The French Defense Ministry declared Thursday that sending massive military forces to Haiti is not yet on the agenda and that France gives priority to political and diplomatic solutions.

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The French Defense Ministry declared on Feb. 19 that sending massive military forces to Haiti is not yet on the agenda and that France gives priority to political and diplomatic solutions.

"There's no tendency in our thought to consider massive military forces to be an adequate answer. It's not on the agenda," said ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau at a press conference.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin suggested Tuesday to send a peacekeeping force to Haiti, in response to a call made on Monday by Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to end a crisis which ravaged the country from Feb. 5.

"We have a platform, We have important assets close to Haiti with our department Antilles-Guyana ... we have skills in the field of humanitarian interventions," said the foreign minister.

As to French military facilities stationed in the Antilles (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and in Guyana, "they are forces of French sovereignty in its territories" and "not some means which can, from their composition, be used spontaneously to intervene or to arrange crisis," said Bureau.

"There are in all some 3,000 troops in the Antilles. They are pilots, infantry, marine and medical officers, all of them are mobilized to do some security and sovereignty missions," said the spokesman.

"The problem in Haiti needs first a political solution ... Military facilities can only support political process, if it is necessary," said Bureau.

France, Haiti's former colonizer, also possesses some transport aircraft, helicopters and warships in the Antilles, in a distance of 4 hours' flying time or 4 days on the sea from Port-au-Prince.

The Haitian opposition on Wednesday voiced its rejection to foreign intervention designed to keep President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in power, according to reports from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

"We need a fast political solution" and not a force of invasion, said Paul Denis, spokesman of the Organization of People in Fight.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared Wednesday on local TV network that there was no plan for an international intervention aiming at ending the crisis in Haiti. He had discussed twice within two days with his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin on the issue, confirmed the US State Department.

Source: Xinhua

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