Canada Comes To Rescue Of Haiti

A last-minute offer by Canada to pay for hundreds of peacekeeping troops broke through a Chinese roadblock on Thursday and saved a mission in Haiti hours before it was set to expire.

China’s stubborn effort to punish Haiti for its ties to Taiwan isolated Beijing on the Security Council and hurt its image immeasurably among developing nations, diplomats from around the world said on Thursday.

On Thursday night, by a unanimous vote, the Security Council extended for four months an operation to support Haiti’s new government with 1,200 troops and 300 international civilian police officers.

The council had wanted a force of 1,900 troops and 300 police officers for six months, down from the force of 4,100 now in Haiti, 1,730 of them Americans. To close the gap in numbers - created when China, failing to sabotage the operation entirely, drew a line at 1,200 - Canada said it would send the additional 700 troops at its own expense.