BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Eleven Brazilian soldiers from a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed in the Caribbean country’s huge earthquake, Brazil’s army said in a statement today.
General Carlos Barcellos said in an earlier news conference in the capital Brasilia that many Brazilian soldiers were also missing and that large numbers of civilians have moved toward military bases in search of humanitarian aid.
One of the buildings housing Brazilian troops “completely collapsed” and soldiers were searching for survivors, the defense ministry said in a statement.
Brazil leads the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed to the poor Caribbean nation in 2004 after a rebellion by gangs and former soldiers forced elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile.
Thousands of people may be dead after the most powerful earthquake to hit Haiti in more than 200 years that toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties and left the country of 9 million people appealing for international help.
Barcellos said telephones are down and road transportation is impossible due to wreckage, making it difficult to get an exact count of the total number of Brazilians who perished in the quake. At least one Brazilian civilian also died.
General Enzo Peri, the army’s top officer, will leave for Haiti on Wednesday to assess the situation, said Barcellos. Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim will also travel to Haiti.
Brazil has 1,266 army and navy troops in Haiti as part of the multinational force that as of last year included 9,065 police and military personnel from nations ranging from Jamaica to Sri Lanka.
The South American nation took the lead in commanding the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, as part of its broader effort to boost its influence on the world stage.
The mission was mandated to help support the democratic process, and oversaw the 2006 election of Rene Preval that returned Haiti to constitutional rule.
But it has been criticized for failing to control gang violence in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. Some human rights groups have accused it of failing to investigate severe human rights abuses by the Haitian police.
