USA: HAITI "SAFE AND SECURE" FOR U.N. - PERRY.

Date: Jan 17, 1995

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuter) - Despite the chance of random violence in Haiti, that nation is now "safe and secure" for U.N. troops to replace a U.S.-led multinational force there, Defence Secretary William Perry said Tuesday.

The Defence Department said the transition is likely to take place over the last two weeks in March, allowing many of the American troops now in Haiti to come home.

There are now 7,100 U.S. troops in Haiti, where American forces were sent last September to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Up to 3,000 would remain as part of a U.N. force of about 6,000 troops after March.

"The term 'safe and secure' is a relative term, of course," Perry told reporters Tuesday, five days after a U.S. soldier was shot to death in an exchange of gunfire with the driver of pickup truck in Haiti.

"Any city in the United States, any city anywhere in the world is subject to random and isolated violence," he added before a meeting with British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd. "There has been some of that in Haiti, but on a relative scale, yes, I would say it is safe and secure."

Defence Department spokesman Ken Bacon later told reporters that the United Nations expects to take over the Haiti operation from the United States during the last two weeks in March.

"Our assumption is now that the UNMI (U.N. Mission in Haiti) force will take over probably in the last two weeks of March, by March 31st. That's the joint plan," said Bacon.

He said U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was expected to submit documents to the Security Council Wednesday "saying that Haiti is now a secure and stable environment" for a turnover to U.N. control.

The Security Council within a week will adopt a resolution spelling out conditions for UNMI, which will have up to 6,000 troops, about half of them drawn from the current U.S.-led force. More than 2,000 are expected to be Americans.

The new U.N. force commander is U.S. Army Major General Joseph Kinzer. Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, will be the civilian U.N. chief of the operation.

Bacon told reporters that Kinzer and Brahimi were currently in Haiti and would remain there until Friday for meetings, including talks with Aristide.

An Army Special Forces sergeant became the first U.S. soldier killed in Haiti last Thursday in an exchange of gunfire with the driver of a pickup truck that drove past a tollbooth without stopping.

A second American soldier was wounded and a Haitian civilian was killed in the incident in Gonaives, a town about 106 miles (170 km) from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

(c) Reuters Limited 1995. All rights reserved.