U.S. Marines Prepare to Leave Haiti

[struggle4progress]

With their mission in Haiti drawing close to an end, U.S. Marines on Tuesday presented slum residents with a refurbished soccer field they created by removing trash, laying dirt and setting up nets.

U.S. Ambassador James Foley and Haiti's U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the field in Cite Soleil, an area plagued by grinding poverty and violence.
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Residents praised the field on Tuesday, but said that without programs to tackle poverty and crime, the field will be useless.
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The United States will hand over the mission's responsibility on Friday to Brazilian troops, who will head a six-month U.N. peacekeeping mission that is expected to swell to 6,700 troops and 1,622 civilian police. Only a dozen or so U.S. troops will stay on as part of the U.N. mission.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0604/154773.html


Argentina authorizes sending troops to Haiti

The Argentine government issued a decree Tuesday to authorize the dispatch of more than 600 troops and medical staff to join the UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti.

According to the degree posted on the State's Office Bulletin, Argentina will send 614 troops, military doctors and nurses to the Caribbean country along with a transport ship, 30 armored personnel carriers, a mobile air force hospital unit and two helicopters.
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Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the Argentine troops will leave for Haiti on July 10 and be deployed in the cities of Gonaives and Saint Marc.
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The UN force began arriving in Haiti on June 1. It replaces a 3,600-strong multinational force led by the United States sent after armed rebels forced Haiti's first democratically elected president,Jean Bertrand Aristide, to resign in February.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/23/content_1541735.htm

[Dirk39]

1. mission accomplished

Democracy destroyed, death-squads installed, sexual freedom for Lyndie and her cool friends, no food.
In other words: Just another liberated country.


And the evil dictator and drug-warlord Aristide is gone:
""Democracy in Haiti doesn't mean a thing unless the people can eat.
Democracy asks us to put the needs and rights of people at the center of our endeavors. This means investing in people. Investing in people means first of all food, clean water, education and healthcare. These are basic human rights. It is the challenge of any real democracy to guarantee them. If democracy in rich countries and poor ones alike is to be more than a facade, nice in theory, but irrelevant in the face of global economic relationships, our concept and practice of democracy must make a giant leap forward. We must democratize democracy.
Do not confuse democracy with the holding of elections every four or five years. Elections are the exam, testing the health of our system. Voter participation is the grade."
Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[struggle4progress]

2. Great Aristide quote! eom