Gates: No policing role for US in Haiti

US defence secretary Robert Gates said the US would not have an expanded policing role in quake-ravaged Haiti, but troops could defend themselves and civilians or foreigners if lawlessness boiled over.

Mr Gates’ comments to reporters travelling with him to India for talks on defence co-operation, trade and relations between India and Pakistan, came after a French minister called for a United Nations investigation into the dominant US role in Haiti.

Co-operation minister Alain Joyandet said yesterday that international aid efforts were about helping Haiti, not “occupying” it.

But Mr Gates said the US was chiefly involved in distributing relief and would support the United Nations in providing security.

Giving a a fuller explanation of the rules under which American troops are operating than the Pentagon had previously provided. Mr Gates approved rules of engagement for US forces on shore and aboard nearby ships.

“Anywhere we deploy our troops they have the authority and the right to defend themselves,” he said, adding that the troops could also defend others “if they see something happen”.

On Sunday, Lt Gen Ken Keen of the US Southern Command said some violence has hindered rescue workers trying to help earthquake victims. He said providing humanitarian aid required a safe and secure environment and while streets had been mostly calm, violence had been increasing.

Lt Gen Keen said about 1,000 US troops were in Haiti and 3,000 more are working from ships. More than 12,000 US forces were expected to be in the region by today.

Mr Joyandet’s “occupation” remark came after US forces turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the damaged, congested airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince last week.

The plane landed safely the following day.

The minister, in Brussels for an EU meeting on Haiti, said: “This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti.”

Mr Joyandet said he expected a UN decision on how governments should work together in Haiti and he hopes “things will be clarified concerning the role of the United States”.

But French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner tried to calm the simmering tensions, warning governments and aid groups not to squabble as they tried to get aid into Haiti.

“People always want it to be their plane that lands,” he said. “(But) what’s important is the fate of the Haitians.”

The US military controls the Port-au-Prince airport, where only one runway is functioning and has been effectively running aid operations.

The United Nations is taking the lead in the critical task of co-ordinating aid.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on Saturday that the US government had no intention of taking power from Haitian officials.

“We are working to back them up, but not to supplant them,” she said.

France occupied Haiti for more than 100 years, from 1697 to independence in 1804 after the world’s first successful slave uprising. More recently, US Marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934 to quiet political turmoil.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said he intends to travel to Haiti “in the weeks to come”, though no date has been set.