The U.S. Marines who arrived in Haiti late Sunday will be joined in the coming days by soldiers from France, Canada and several Caribbean nations, diplomats said.
The United Nations Security Council late Sunday unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing the multinational force to “contribute to a secure and stable environment” across Haiti for up to three months. The resolution said the UN could then establish a peacekeeping force to remain longer.
The framework for the resolution was hashed out before the Security Council by a group called the Friends of Haiti–the U.S., France, Canada, Brazil, Chile and representatives of the 15-member Caribbean Community.
“Initially the multinational force will be military,” John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said before the meeting. “There may be a follow-up later on of a peacekeeping nature.”
A senior U.S. defense official told The Associated Press that the relatively small advance contingent of Marines would be followed by more Monday and later in the week.
Fewer than 100 Marines arrived Sunday. And about 50 Marines were sent to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, last week to help guard the U.S. Embassy.
The deployment Sunday represents the third military intervention by the U.S. in Haiti in the past 100 years and the second in a decade.
President Woodrow Wilson sent troops in 1915 after the Haitian government was overthrown. They supported U.S. officials who reorganized the Haitian government and did not leave the country until 1934.
In 1994 a multinational force including about 20,000 U.S. troops arrived to force the ouster of a military junta and reinstall President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the nation’s president.
Aristide was re-elected in 2000 but quickly lost favor at home and abroad.
A three-week insurgency and mounting diplomatic pressure forced his resignation early Sunday.
In addition to more Marines, more than 120 French troops were due to arrive Monday.
“Conforming to the wish of the president of the republic, two companies will arrive there tomorrow from the French Antilles,” said Jean-Francois Bureau, a spokesman for the French Defense Ministry.
Canadian officials denied television reports that their soldiers had taken control of the Port-au-Prince Airport.
Canada, which flew three military transport planes to Haiti on Saturday, said it had about 20 soldiers there.
The U.S. Southern Command, responsible for forces deployed in Haiti, said it was unclear how many Marines would be sent to Haiti.
The U.S. military’s resources have been strained by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the combat-trained Army is involved in a massive rotation of nearly 230,000 troops to and from Iraq. In addition, there are about 25,000 Marines deployed in western Iraq. About 12,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials declined Sunday to say from where the Marines were drawn. But Camp Lejeune in North Carolina is the Marines’ largest base and has an infantry battalion kept on alert for short-notice deployments.
