Brazil wants Haiti peacekeeping force cut 15 pct

[ocpagu]

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Brazil's defense minister called Thursday for a 15 percent cut in Haiti's peacekeeping force of 12,000 soldiers and police as the start of a gradual withdrawal aimed at turning security over to the Haitians themselves.

Celso Amorim said Brazil is negotiating with the United Nations to begin the pullback, but will keep troops in Haiti until local forces are ready to take over.

Amorim spoke after lunching with Uruguayan President Jose Mujica in Montevideo, where ministers from the Latin American peacekeeping nations held a long-planned meeting on the future of the U.N. mission in Haiti.

The meeting has been overshadowed by allegations that Uruguayan peacekeepers sexually abused a young Haitian man inside their U.N. base, an event apparently captured on an Uruguayan's cellphone video.
Demonstrators in Haiti this week have stoked anger over the scandal and called for an immediate pullout of the U.N. force.

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