TURKEY COMMITTED TO SENDING POLICE TO HAITI,

UNCLAS ANKARA 000233 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV HA SOCI MCAP MARR SNAR ASEC EFIN KJUS, KPKO, XL SUBJECT: TURKEY COMMITTED TO SENDING POLICE TO HAITI, TIMING REMAINS UNCLEAR REF: SECSTATE 12558 ¶1. (U) MFA UN Affairs Department Head Turhan Dilmac told us that Turkey's offer to send a formed police unit to Haiti (ref a) is formal and said Turkey's UN Mission has instructions to convey this to UNDPKO. Dilmac noted that the mission is a challenging one, but underscored Turkey's firm commitment to send a unit of between 120 to 150 police personnel to Haiti. He said two specialists from the Turkish National Police (TNP) are planning to head to Haiti in the near term to determine the area where the Turkish unit will be deployed -- in consultation with the UN -- and to conduct a survey of that area. He said Turkey's UN Mission will coordinate with the UN on the travel of the specialists to Haiti. The specialists' mission is to make a security assessment of the area and provide recommendations on the equipment and capabilities the Turkish unit would need for the mission. Dilmac stressed that the length of deployment has not be decided and can only be determined following the experts' assessment. He also mentioned that there may be an agreement needed between the Government of Turkey and UNDPKO in order to finalize arrangements for the FPU's deployment, and said Turkey's UN Mission is working with UNDPKO on this agreement. ¶2. (U) Dilmac said it would be premature to speculate on when the Turkish FPU may be able to deploy or its equipment needs at this point; the GoT will have to wait for its experts' assessment before making these decisions. He also said issues related to transportation logistics for the unit's deployment has not been specifically discussed yet. Dilmac did not indicate any requests at this point for assistance with the unit's deployment. COMMENT -------------- ¶3. (U) Turkey delivered humanitarian aid in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake using five Turkish Air Force C-130s. Although the MFA did not state this, we expect Turkey will be able to employ its C-130s to transport the police unit to Haiti. Jeffrey "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"