UN authorizes sending force to Haiti
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-01 11:08

U.N. Security Council members reached agreement Sunday night to authorize sending an international force to Haiti for three months to restore order, U.N. diplomats said.

A vote was scheduled shortly and diplomats said they expected approval would be unanimous.

An initial draft resolution would have authorized an international military force to remain in Haiti for two months. It said the council would then be prepared to establish a U.N. stabilization force to stay for a longer, unspecified period.

But U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said two months wasn't a "realistic" timetable to assemble and deploy a U.N. force, insisting that "three to four months" would be needed. The United Nations has no standing army and must ask the 191 U.N. member states to contribute troops or civilian police to a force.

After meeting behind closed doors just under two hours, council members suspended the session so a loose grouping called the Friends of Haiti that drafted the resolution could amend it. The council then met again and agreed to a revised draft which says the interim force would be deployed for "not more than three months," U.N. diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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