Brazil will keep its troops in Haiti as long as the government wants

13/03/2006 - 6h52

Carolina Pimentel
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Brazil will maintain its UN troops in Haiti as long as the Haitian government considers it necessary, president Luíz Inácio da Silva, said today (13).

"We are subordinated to the will of the UN; we follow the sovereign desire of the Haitian nation. When they tell us that they don't want us any more, we shall return to Brazil with a conscience of a duty fulfilled," Lula said, this morning in his weekly radio program, Breakfast with the President.

Lula said that in his meeting with the elected president of Haiti, René Préval, who came to Brazil last week and accompanied Lula at the inauguration of the new president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, Préval said that the continued presence of the peace troops in his country is vital for the preservation of security.

In February, the UN Security Council extended the mission of the UN peace force in Haiti for six months.

Translation: David Silberstein