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The US military is planning for Haiti contingencies but has not yet issued special deployment orders, US defense officials said Friday. "We have no deployment orders, and no ships are moving," said Lieutenant Jason Salata, a Navy spokesman in reaction to reports that the United States was considering sending three ships with up to 2,200 Marines to the troubled Caribbean republic. An amphibious ready group led by the helicopter carrier USS Saipan is next on the rotation order, but no alerts, warnings or orders have gone out to military units, a second defense official said. "From the military's perspective it is status quo. There are only the 50 marines at the US embassy, and no other military movements," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the military was "going through the checklist" of what might be required if they are called on. "It's the standard range of options that are available," the official said. The State Department is tracking the situation diplomatically, and the US Coast Guard has about a dozen vessels off Haiti that have picked up more than 500 people trying to leave. "Until they leave the wait-and-see approach, they (the military) won't know what they will do," said the official. Other Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while contingency planning was underway, the United States was placing the emphasis on finding a political solution to the crisis in which rebels which control about half of Haiti are threatening to take the capital to oust President Jean Bertrand Aristide. "There is nothing at the moment beyond the State Department effort to resolve it in a political manner," a Pentagon official said. "We are doing contingency planning as we do all the time," said a senior defense official."There's is a range of options." But he added: "It is not the military options that are being pursued with the same vigor as the diplomatic options." All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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