Washington Post: Haiti holds a special place in the hearts of Bill and Hillary Clinton Options

[ABLAT Staff]

Washington Post:
Haiti holds a special place in the hearts of Bill and Hillary Clinton

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 16, 2010

In the strange circle of life, it all comes back to Haiti.

When Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham in 1975, a friend gave them a trip to Haiti. Since that honeymoon vacation, the Caribbean island nation has held a life-long allure for the couple, a place they found at once desperate and enchanting, pulling at their emotions throughout his presidency and in her maiden year as secretary of state.

With the world's attention now trained on the devastated Haitian capital, rebuilding the country will be a central part of Bill and Hillary Clinton's lives going forward. And for the 42nd president, the catastrophe offers the opportunity to fulfill whatever unrealized ambitions he has for the long-suffering nation.

"This is a personal thing for us," Bill Clinton said in a interview Thursday. He said he and his wife have "always felt a special responsibility" for Haiti and its 9 million people. "She has the same memories I do. She has the same concerns I do. We love the place."

On that first trip in December 1975, Clinton said he and his wife watched as a wreath was placed at the national monument to celebrate Haitian Independence Day. They toured the old hotel where the writer Ernest Hemingway once stayed and visited a voodoo high priest dressed in all white. They sat in a lonely pew of the Port-au-Prince National Cathedral, which lies in ruin following Tuesday's earthquake.

"We just became fascinated with the country," Bill Clinton said by telephone from his charitable foundation's office in New York. "We followed all its ups and downs."

The Clintons' enthrallment has lasted for more than 30 years. They decorated their homes with Haitian art. They flew back again and again. Hillary Clinton once said that theirs was a "Haiti-obsessed family." At a dinner in Rwanda with African leaders in 2008, Bill Clinton talked more about Haiti than Rwanda.

When the Clintons learned that sites in Port-au-Prince they had visited as tourists were destroyed in the earthquake and locals they had come to know were injured or unaccounted for, Bill Clinton said he was "personally emotionally affected." His wife, he said, became "physically sick."
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The Clintons are at the center of the global relief effort. Bill Clinton is the U.N. special envoy to Haiti and, together with former president George W. Bush, is leading America's humanitarian and long-term recovery efforts in Haiti. Hillary Clinton is among the top officials responsible for the nation's work aiding Haiti and its paralyzed government, and plans to fly there Saturday. "The two agencies in the world that can run these things are the United States and the United Nations, and the Clintons sit atop this package," said former senator Tim Wirth, president of the U.N. Foundation.

Three months into her term last spring, Hillary Clinton addressed the Haiti Donors Conference in Washington, where she spoke of her family's "deep commitment to Haiti and the people of Haiti." She told of visiting the Haitian town of Pignon as first lady, meeting a country doctor who ran a health, women's literacy and micro-credit center to help his countrymen gain a foothold in the global economy.

"For some of us, Haiti is a neighbor and, for others of us, it is a place of historic and cultural ties," Clinton said. "But for all of us, it is now a test of resolve and commitment."

Bill Clinton is credited with prioritizing Haiti more than any other modern president; in 1995, he became the first commander in chief to visit the island since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But Clinton failed to achieve his goal of economic growth in Haiti. His administration intervened in 1994 to reinstall President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a democratic government in the wake of a military coup. When Republicans took over Congress the next year, they checked Clinton's every step in Haiti, and within two years Clinton withdrew U.S. troops from Haiti. The island state has continued to be plagued by crime and drug trafficking.

"The unfinished business was whether there could be enough assistance to get an infrastructure to allow Haiti to dream of becoming this century's South Korea," said Taylor Branch, a longtime friend. "Naturally, Clinton hoped that Haiti could have an economic rebirth to go along with this political rebirth. But it didn't happen."

Still, Clinton has been regarded as a harbinger of hope to the Haitian people. He recently visited Milot, a town in northern Haiti, where he drew a large and unexpected crowd of locals in a soccer field. They recognized the former president.

"He kind of charged into the crowd," said Paul Farmer, a public-health expert and deputy U.N. envoy to Haiti, who accompanied Clinton on the trip. "He was so happy. It sounds corny, but I've seen that again and again. He has this real connection."

Last summer, Clinton took a walk with Haitian President René Préval down a street in Gonaives that had just been reconstructed following the 2008 hurricanes. Hundreds of neighbors gathered around them and Clinton spent so much time talking with the locals, aides said, that it took one hour to walk a quarter-mile.

"He is regarded as someone who's fundamentally sympathetic to the Haitians, someone who has argued they have a right to dignity and respect -- and to chose their own leaders," Farmer said.
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In his post-presidency, Clinton has tried to leverage his prestige to focus on long-term development in Haiti, helping secure millions of dollars in aid. Wirth has traveled with the Clintons to Haiti. "He asks, 'What can we do?' " Wirth said. "This is such a problem . . . and people have almost such enormous fatigue facing the size of this challenge. He lifts people above that fatigue and into action again."

Asked if he is committing himself to Haiti's cause for near future, Clinton said: "Oh, you bet."

"You've seen the pictures," he said. "The streets are full of the wounded, the orphaned and the dead. It's a devastating, devastating thing. . . . These people, they deserve their chance to build a modern life, and I think they can do it."

On Thursday, Clinton and Farmer convened a long-scheduled meeting in Clinton's Harlem office of about 50 philanthropists, financiers and leaders of nongovernmental organizations interested in the long-term development of Haiti. Clinton said his strategy is to "build back better." That means not just fixing roads, but also planting trees on deforested hillsides, growing more mangoes to export and expanding organic recycling programs.

"The Haitians have the first chance they've had to escape their own history," Clinton said.

To Clinton, Haiti's promise can be summed up in a single briquette. Haitians cook mostly with charcoal fire, but coal is an expensive resource there. A group of entrepreneurial women he visited recently in a densely populated Port-au-Prince neighborhood found a solution. As Clinton told the story, they walk through the streets picking up trash. They mix the paper with sawdust and water and then press the water from the product to create organic briquettes.

"They can sell these things for a penny or two a piece, and three of them will prepare dinner on a typical Haitian cooking stove for much, much less -- 15 percent of the cost of making dinner with charcoal," Clinton said.

He was so impressed that he brought dozens of the briquettes to New York with him. He carries one in his bag every day, aides said, sometimes pulling a briquette out of his pocket during speeches to show audiences.

"For a few hundred thousand dollars," Clinton said, "we can spread this all over Port-au-Prince."

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0011503820.html

Bill Clinton and GW Bush establish Haiti relief fund....
Donations are being handled by Clinton Foundation


Support the Earthquake Recovery Efforts in Haiti

On January 12, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti just outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The devastation – in lives lost, property destroyed, and families displaced – is immense.

At the request of President Obama, we are partnering to help the Haitian people reclaim their country and rebuild their lives.

Our immediate priority is to save lives. The critical needs in Haiti are great, but they are also simple: food, water, shelter, and first-aid supplies. The best way concerned citizens can help is to donate funds that will go directly to supplying these material needs.

Through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, we will work to provide immediate relief and long-term support to earthquake survivors. We will channel the collective goodwill around the globe to help the people of Haiti rebuild their cities, their neighborhoods, and their families.

We ask each of you to give what you can to help ensure the people of Haiti can build back stronger and better than ever.

Both of us have personally witnessed the tremendous generosity and goodwill of the American people and of our friends around the world to help in times of great need. There is no greater rallying cry for our common humanity than witnessing our neighbors in distress. And, like any good neighbor, we have an obligation and desire to come to their aid.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, and we hope you will donate to this worthwhile cause. The people of Haiti now need our assistance more than ever.

President William J. Clinton
President George W. Bush

http://clintonbushhaitifund.org/

Hillary Clinton meets with Haiti leader after arrival
January 17, 2010 -- Updated 0307 GMT (1107 HKT)

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a united stance with Haitian President Rene Preval during her visit Saturday to the quake-battered capital.

Clinton, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country since Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, sought to assure the Haitian people that the United States is working with the government "to assist in every way we can."

"We are here at the invitation of your government to help you," she said. "As President Obama has said, we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

Clinton said she and Preval will issue a joint communique Sunday "setting forth our intention to cooperate together."

Clinton arrived in Haiti via a U.S. Coast Guard plane Saturday afternoon and immediately went into meetings with Preval, Rajiv Shah, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other U.S. officials already on the ground.

Get the latest developments in Haiti

"We had a very good meeting about all of the priorities of the Haitian government and the Haitian people," Clinton said after a brief news conference following the meetings.
Video: Haitians can't 'get a break'
Video: Hillary Clinton in Haiti
Video: Ex-presidents to help raise funds
Video: Haitians sing, chant, march
10 biggest quakes since 1900
RELATED TOPICS

* Haiti
* Earthquakes
* Port-au-Prince

She said air efforts are focused on providing water, food and medical help. She also stressed the importance of restoring the country's communications networks, electricity and transportation.

"We agreed that we will be coordinating closely together to achieve these goals."

In an interview with CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, Clinton said "every day we are making progress and I expect that to continue."

In addition to the immediate needs, Clinton said the focus will switch next week to long-term recovery and reconstruction, telling Gupta she believed that Haiti, with the help of the international community, could be a better place than it was before Tuesday's quake.

The U.S. Coast Guard plane she arrived on was carrying 100 cases of water, 100 cases of meals-ready-to-eat, and food and toiletries for about 140 U.S. Embassy staff members. Fifty Americans, who have been waiting to be evacuated, will fly back to the United States when Clinton departs.

Clinton landed hours after President Obama announced Saturday that former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush have agreed to lead an effort to raise funds for Haiti.

Frustrations continued to mount in the earthquake-pummeled country as survivors remained in dire need of food, water and medical aid.

One medical official warned that a third of the patients at a makeshift hospital -- one of many being erected in open fields, abandoned stadiums and empty warehouses around the capital -- were in need of immediate surgery, and could die without it.

"They will die of infections, they'll die of dead tissue, they'll die of malnutrition and metabolic derangements," Dr. Jennifer Furin with the Harvard Medical School said of the roughly 300 patients at the hospital on a U.N. compound near Port-au-Prince's airport.

Elsewhere, a food drop by U.S. helicopters in Port-au-Prince became a chaotic scene as hundreds of Haitians without food and water for four days rushed the boxes of aid being shoved out of the open doors. A similar scene erupted Friday when a food convoy with the World Food Programme was forced to leave an area after men in the crowd starting pushing and shoving their way to the trucks.

Impact Your World

Amid the chaos, there were signs of progress: more aid distribution sites and hospitals, a system for identifying the dead and even more survivors rescued from the ruins of buildings.

U.S. troops handed out about 2,500 meals in Petionville on Saturday and 14 aid distribution points had been established.

The Israel Defense Forces began operating a field hospital at an abandoned soccer field, and the U.S. Naval Hospital Ship Comfort, staffed by a crew of 64 and 560 hospital personnel, left the Baltimore Harbor on a trip that will take about five days.

Increasingly, Haitians were seen helping Haitians. One local church was able to scrounge up some potato chips, bottled water and juice to hand out. Local authorities were seen setting up a makeshift clinic on a street corner in Port-au-Prince with one doctor and a couple of tables and folding chairs.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said common grave sites were being created for the thousands of victims, calling mass graves discovered by CNN crews Friday "not very dignified." He said the dead will be photographed in hopes of providing identification for families.

While there has not been an official count of the dead, Mulet said the number of casualties in the capital, which has a population of 3 million, ranges from 100,000 to 150,000. He said Friday 13,000 bodies had been recovered so far. The State Department has put the American death toll at 15 so far.

U.S. officials said search and rescue operations will continue through the weekend. As of Saturday afternoon, 22 people had been rescued since Tuesday from collapsed buildings by U.S. urban search and rescue teams.

At least one man was pulled from the rubble on Saturday and other crews were working to reach others. Tapping noises were heard at a collapsed day-care center, but later stopped. One trapped person apparently was sending text messages from beneath a collapsed bank.

Meanwhile, the Port-au-Prince airport remained overwhelmed by the influx of air traffic bringing in supplies and efforts continued to clear the roads.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who confirmed Saturday the deaths of the top two civilian officials at Haiti's U.N. mission, was to arrive in the capital Sunday.

On Friday, the United Nations said that at least 37 U.N. personnel have died -- 36 with the U.N. mission and one with the World Food Programme. The number of unaccounted for U.N. people exceeded 300. There are 12,000 people working for U.N. entities in Haiti.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, Ivan Watson, Arthur Brice, Elise Labott, Richard Roth, Chris Lawrence and Steve Kastenbaum contributed to this report.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a united stance with Haitian President Rene Preval during her visit Saturday to the quake-battered capital.

Clinton, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country since Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, sought to assure the Haitian people that the United States is working with the government "to assist in every way we can."

"We are here at the invitation of your government to help you," she said. "As President Obama has said, we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

Clinton said she and Preval will issue a joint communique Sunday "setting forth our intention to cooperate together."

Clinton arrived in Haiti via a U.S. Coast Guard plane Saturday afternoon and immediately went into meetings with Preval, Rajiv Shah, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other U.S. officials already on the ground.

Get the latest developments in Haiti

"We had a very good meeting about all of the priorities of the Haitian government and the Haitian people," Clinton said after a brief news conference following the meetings.
Video: Haitians can't 'get a break'
Video: Hillary Clinton in Haiti
Video: Ex-presidents to help raise funds
Video: Haitians sing, chant, march
10 biggest quakes since 1900
RELATED TOPICS

* Haiti
* Earthquakes
* Port-au-Prince

She said air efforts are focused on providing water, food and medical help. She also stressed the importance of restoring the country's communications networks, electricity and transportation.

"We agreed that we will be coordinating closely together to achieve these goals."

In an interview with CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, Clinton said "every day we are making progress and I expect that to continue."

In addition to the immediate needs, Clinton said the focus will switch next week to long-term recovery and reconstruction, telling Gupta she believed that Haiti, with the help of the international community, could be a better place than it was before Tuesday's quake.

The U.S. Coast Guard plane she arrived on was carrying 100 cases of water, 100 cases of meals-ready-to-eat, and food and toiletries for about 140 U.S. Embassy staff members. Fifty Americans, who have been waiting to be evacuated, will fly back to the United States when Clinton departs.

Clinton landed hours after President Obama announced Saturday that former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush have agreed to lead an effort to raise funds for Haiti.

Frustrations continued to mount in the earthquake-pummeled country as survivors remained in dire need of food, water and medical aid.

One medical official warned that a third of the patients at a makeshift hospital -- one of many being erected in open fields, abandoned stadiums and empty warehouses around the capital -- were in need of immediate surgery, and could die without it.

"They will die of infections, they'll die of dead tissue, they'll die of malnutrition and metabolic derangements," Dr. Jennifer Furin with the Harvard Medical School said of the roughly 300 patients at the hospital on a U.N. compound near Port-au-Prince's airport.

Elsewhere, a food drop by U.S. helicopters in Port-au-Prince became a chaotic scene as hundreds of Haitians without food and water for four days rushed the boxes of aid being shoved out of the open doors. A similar scene erupted Friday when a food convoy with the World Food Programme was forced to leave an area after men in the crowd starting pushing and shoving their way to the trucks.

Impact Your World

Amid the chaos, there were signs of progress: more aid distribution sites and hospitals, a system for identifying the dead and even more survivors rescued from the ruins of buildings.

U.S. troops handed out about 2,500 meals in Petionville on Saturday and 14 aid distribution points had been established.

The Israel Defense Forces began operating a field hospital at an abandoned soccer field, and the U.S. Naval Hospital Ship Comfort, staffed by a crew of 64 and 560 hospital personnel, left the Baltimore Harbor on a trip that will take about five days.

Increasingly, Haitians were seen helping Haitians. One local church was able to scrounge up some potato chips, bottled water and juice to hand out. Local authorities were seen setting up a makeshift clinic on a street corner in Port-au-Prince with one doctor and a couple of tables and folding chairs.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said common grave sites were being created for the thousands of victims, calling mass graves discovered by CNN crews Friday "not very dignified." He said the dead will be photographed in hopes of providing identification for families.

While there has not been an official count of the dead, Mulet said the number of casualties in the capital, which has a population of 3 million, ranges from 100,000 to 150,000. He said Friday 13,000 bodies had been recovered so far. The State Department has put the American death toll at 15 so far.

U.S. officials said search and rescue operations will continue through the weekend. As of Saturday afternoon, 22 people had been rescued since Tuesday from collapsed buildings by U.S. urban search and rescue teams.

At least one man was pulled from the rubble on Saturday and other crews were working to reach others. Tapping noises were heard at a collapsed day-care center, but later stopped. One trapped person apparently was sending text messages from beneath a collapsed bank.

Meanwhile, the Port-au-Prince airport remained overwhelmed by the influx of air traffic bringing in supplies and efforts continued to clear the roads.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who confirmed Saturday the deaths of the top two civilian officials at Haiti's U.N. mission, was to arrive in the capital Sunday.

On Friday, the United Nations said that at least 37 U.N. personnel have died -- 36 with the U.N. mission and one with the World Food Programme. The number of unaccounted for U.N. people exceeded 300. There are 12,000 people working for U.N. entities in Haiti.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, Ivan Watson, Arthur Brice, Elise Labott, Richard Roth, Chris Lawrence and Steve Kastenbaum contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas...iti.earthquake/


How the U.S. Military Will Help Haiti
By MARK THOMPSON / WASHINGTON Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages...l#ixzz0cprbuCuN

When an earthquake ravages a country as poor and urbanized as Haiti, it produces the cruelest kind of synergy, as poverty breeds cramped living quarters that are left even more vulnerable by substandard construction work. While U.S. officials weren't issuing estimates of casualties from Tuesday's strong 7.0 earthquake, there was growing concern that pancaked buildings in Port-au-Prince, home to some 2 million people — and Haiti's inability to quickly rescue those who are trapped — could lead to thousands, if not tens of thousands, of fatalities.

The U.S. response began with a Navy P-3 Orion based at Comalapa, El Salvador, which flew over the Haitian capital gathering photographic and other intelligence on the extent of the damage. Officials at the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command began using that information to guide U.S. and international rescue efforts. At first light on Wednesday, a Coast Guard helicopter evacuated four critically injured U.S. embassy staff and took them to a hospital at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for treatment. Elements of the Air Force First Special Operations Wing deployed on Wednesday to the international airport at Port-au-Prince to provide air traffic control capability and airfield operations. (See pictures of the aftermath of the Haiti quake.)

Pentagon officials said an initial team of 30 people arrived in Haiti on Wednesday to join the 63 U.S. soldiers who are permanently stationed there. The team includes military engineers, operational planners, communication specialists and a command and control group. They'll work with U.S. embassy staff as well as Haitian, U.N. and other officials on the ground to assess the situation and coordinate rescue and recovery efforts. The Navy aircraft carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson is on the way and is expected to arrive off the coast of Haiti on Thursday, where it will be joined by additional Navy vessels that are under way.

As many as 2,000 Marines could soon be deployed to the island, General Douglas Fraser, U.S. Southern Command chief, told a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday. While "the situation is calm" on the island, Fraser said, the forces could ensure that it stays that way as the humanitarian situation potentially grows more dire. An Army brigade of about 3,000 troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., has also been put on alert for possible deployment.

Fraser made clear, when pressed on reports that 100,000 or more people may have perished, that just as there is a "fog of war," there is also a fog surrounding natural disasters. "You've heard reports of collapsed buildings, but there's been very limited communications," he said. "I think there will be significant loss of life."

Beyond providing security, the U.S. military's goal is to make sure that airports and seaports are primed to receive the flood of aid that is expected to flow into Haiti in the coming days. Initial reports from the airport indicated that its runway is functional but that the control tower has no communications and the passenger terminal is damaged.

U.S. forces will be setting up command centers, linked by the U.S. military's communication networks, to replace those that were ripped apart by the quake. The Pentagon may also dispatch the hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort from its homeport in Baltimore to the region as well as fleets of Coast Guard vessels and aircraft. The Comfort last visited Haiti in April, the first stop during its four-month Continuing Promise 2009 humanitarian-assistance mission through Latin America and the Caribbean. Its crew of medical professionals from the Navy, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard and U.S. Public Health Service, as well as about a dozen nongovernmental organizations and international partners, provided a full range of medical care to Haitian citizens.

The Comfort may in fact not be needed, because the large vessel ferrying many of the Marines to Haiti has much of the same medical capability.

"The United States is going to do all we can to help, and we've worked throughout the night to figure out how we can do that and do it as rapidly as possible," Admiral Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, said on Wednesday. "We have an awful lot of people working in that direction right now."(See why the Rev. Pat Robertson thinks Haiti is cursed.)

The U.S. military most recently helped out in Haiti in September 2008, after a series of hurricanes left flooding and mudslides in their wake. The U.S.S. Kearsarge, an amphibious ship on a humanitarian mission in Colombia at the time, was diverted to Haiti, where its crew remained for 19 days, using helicopters and amphibious landing craft to deliver 3.3 million pounds of internationally donated aid to communities that were isolated by the disaster.

"Thousands of people are hard at work in our government trying to do everything we can," Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher said on Wednesday morning, adding that Haiti's "woeful infrastructure ... is making it very difficult for us to even understand how to get there and help them." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a nine-day tour of the western Pacific, was "up all night" in Hawaii helping coordinate the Obama Administration's rescue efforts, Tauscher said. "This is a very big tragedy," she added, "but we're all working hard to make sure that we can deliver the kind of aid and support [Haiti needs] — and our condolences too."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages...l#ixzz0cprjXtia


U.N. to launch Haiti emergency appeal for $550 mln
15 Jan 2010 14:31:46 GMT
Source: Reuters
* UN may convert national soccer stadium into field hospital

* WFP looking into collective kitchens in Port-au-Prince (updates with U.N. statement; WFP saying stocks not looted)

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.N. aid agencies will launch an emergency appeal to raise about $550 million to help survivors of the earthquake in Haiti, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

Thousands of people injured in Tuesday's massive earthquake in the Caribbean country spent a third night waiting for help, many lying on sidewalks, as their despair turned to anger.

"The reality is that getting the quantities of supplies, equipment and expertise that are so desperately needed on the ground inevitably takes time," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said in a statement.

The world body also said it was looking at converting the national soccer stadium in Port-au-Prince into a field hospital and at setting up collective kitchens for the homeless.

More than 25 search and rescue teams are now deployed at schools, hotels, hospitals and larger buildings in the capital, with 13 more on their way, according to the U.N. statement.

"There are pockets of survival, we shouldn't give up hope," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "They are working around the clock."

No further field hospitals were required but medical teams including surgeons and medicines were badly needed, she said.

At least 10 percent of housing in the capital was destroyed, making about 300,000 homeless, but in some areas 50 percent of buildings were destroyed or badly damaged, according to a preliminary assessment by U.N. disaster experts.

Under the U.N. appeal, the World Food Programme will seek to provide life-saving food rations to 2 million destitute people for the next month. A longer-term operation is planned up to July 15.

"We need high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals as quickly as possible," WFP spokeswoman Emilia Casella said.

After initialling citing reports from partner agencies that its warehouses had been looted, the WFP later said it reached the Port-au-Prince warehouse in question and stocks were safe.

"Our warehouse has not been looted. We have 6,000 tonnes of food there and it is being protected by the Brazilian military," Caroline Hurford, a WFP spokeswoman in London, told Reuters.

The WFP distributed food to 4,000 people gathered at the prime minister's compound in Port-au-Prince on Thursday following an earlier hand-out in the town of Jacmel.

"We are trying to get the food we do have our hands on to people. What we have been able to do so far is a drop in the bucket," Casella said.

The WFP was also exploring setting up 200 collective kitchens in Port-au-Prince to feed the homeless, she said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE60E1EO.htm

[ABLAT Staff]

Police Absent, Gangs Rule Streets of Haiti
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/14/...in6098137.shtml

Gangs Armed With Machetes Loot Port-Au-Prince
http://wcbstv.com/national/haiti.earthquak....2.1427143.html

Food security collapses in Haiti as machete-wielding gangs fight in the streets
http://www.naturalnews.com/027948_food_sec...eparedness.html

Security concerns cause doctors to leave hospital, quake victims
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/...dex.html?hpt=T1

[ABLAT Staff]

US rushes troops to Haiti quake

The US is sending up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to Haiti to help rescue efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake.

President Barack Obama pledged one of the biggest relief efforts in recent US history and said Haiti would "not be forgotten" in its hour of need.

The search for survivors continues but rescuers lack heavy lifting equipment and many are using their bare hands.

Tens of thousands of people are feared dead and up to three million affected.

BBC correspondents say the situation is increasingly desperate, with aid only trickling in.

Mr Obama confirmed that some US rescuers were already working on the ground in Haiti.

Speaking in Washington, he promised the country "every element of our national capacity, our diplomacy, and development assistance, the power of our military and most importantly, the compassion of our country" following the disaster.

"To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten," he said.

He said US forces had secured Haiti's airport, allowing it to receive round-the-clock deliveries of aid and equipment. However he warned that it would take time for much-needed help to reach people.

AT THE SCENE
Matthew Price, BBC News, Haiti It is clear that many who were brought to L'Hopital de la Paix in Port-au-Prince with injuries have since died here. One man with tears in his eyes pointed to his young daughter lying on the dirty tiled floor.

She has two broken legs and a large gash in her head. Her sister is already dead. "Ca va?" her father asks. "Oui," she replies softly, but she is not okay. In pockets, there is barely anything left of this city and so far the people are largely having to cope on their own.

Mr Obama also promised an immediate $100m for Haiti's relief effort and said that investment would grow over the coming year to aid long-term recovery.

The first 100-strong contingent from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division is expected to arrive in Haiti by the end of Thursday, with several hundred more due by Friday.

They will join Haitians and international search and rescue teams already on the ground.

Aid groups say there is a race against time to find survivors under the rubble of the collapsed buildings - the first priority of the rescue effort.

Heavy lifting gear and sniffer dogs are desperately needed to seek out and free trapped victims. Medicine, food and water are in short supply.

Elisabeth Byrs, of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: "The priority is to find survivors. We are working against the clock."
“ We just don't know what to do. You can see how terrible the damage is. We have not been able to get into all the areas ”
Chilean UN peacekeeper

The head of Medecins du Monde, Olivier Bernard, told AFP news agency that aid had to arrive by Thursday evening.

"To save lives, surgery must be available ideally within the first 48 hours," he said.

Doctor's assistant Jimitre Coquillon told Associated Press: "This is much worse than a hurricane. There's no water. There's nothing. Thirsty people are going to die."

A few US aid planes and a 50-strong Chinese rescue team with sniffer dogs have landed at the airport serving the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Other plane-loads of rescuers and relief supplies are on the way from the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.

A British rescue team with heavy lifting gear and dogs has landed in the Dominican Republic and will be in Haiti later on Thursday.

UK International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "This is a tragedy on a massive scale. Britain is playing its part in the huge international response."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cancelled a trip to Asia to deal with the crisis. She said there were tens of thousands of casualties in Haiti and that tens of thousands of buildings had collapsed.

"This is going to be a long-term effort," she said.

Her husband, Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, told the Washington Post the quake was "one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas".

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier will arrive on Thursday. The USS Bataan, carrying a marine expeditionary unit, is also on its way.

The World Bank is funding $100m of emergency aid.

The World Food Programme is working on supplying 15,000 tonnes of food and the Red Cross has begun a $10m appeal.

The help is desperately needed as there is no co-ordinated rescue at present.

Haitian President Rene Preval could not give an official estimate of the dead, saying: "I don't know... up to now, I heard 50,000... 30,000."

He spoke of how he stepped over dead bodies and heard cries of those trapped in the parliament building.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8459444.stm

First US Army troops heading to Haiti in what Clinton calls major effort to help

By Pauline Jelinek (CP) – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The first U.S. Army troops are heading to Haiti Thursday as the military ramps up what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called a major effort to provide earthquake relief.

The first group of soldiers - a little over 100 - from the 82nd Airborne Division will leave later Thursday, the Army said. The troops will find locations to set up tents and other essentials in preparation for the arrival of another roughly 800 personnel from the division on Friday.

They come on top of some 2,200 Marines, also to be sent, as the military prepares to help with security needs, search and rescue and the delivery of humanitarian supplies. More than a half dozen U.S. military ships also are expected to help, with the largest, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, arriving Thursday.

Appearing on television network news shows after cutting short an overseas trip, Clinton said it is still too early to make a firm estimate of the number of deaths in the wake of Tuesday's devastating, 7.0 magnitude earthquake. But she said officials know that approximately 3 million people, including 45,000 Americans, have been affected and that "tens of thousands, we fear, are dead."

President Barack Obama, who earlier announced a wide-ranging U.S. assistance and relief effort, planned another public statement from the White House later Thursday.

Clinton noted that the small Caribbean country was still recovering, with help from Washington, the United Nations and other countries, from the damage wrought by last year's storms, saying a key challenge now is to "get people back into some semblance of normalcy." She called Haitians "resilient people" and said no one is giving up on them.

Before the earthquake, Clinton said, "We had a full government effort under the Obama administration to really help the people, and we were making progress. ... This is devastating on every level." She said the United States will do "everything we can to help this country rebuild."

In another interview, Clinton said, "We are doing all we can to figure out how to attack the devastation all around and this is going to be a long-term effort," from saving lives and providing food, water and medical supplies, to beginning the reconstruction process.

"We have a (major effort) going on here at the president's direction," she added. "This is incredibly complex work. We have some of the best people in the world from the United States down there and we're just going to do everything we can to be helpful."

Clinton advised people worried about relatives living in Haiti to call a special information number at the State Department.

Of the damage in Haiti, Clinton said "the depth and scope is unimaginable" and said the small country has been plagued by a "cycle of hope and despair."

The U.S. military said the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will leave late this weekend for Haiti.

Lt. Cmdr. Heidi Lenzini of the U.S. Southern Command said Thursday the floating hospital will be on an open-ended humanitarian mission. The ship is staffed with with hundreds of doctors, nurses and technicians. It has has 12 operating rooms and space for 1,000 hospital beds.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianp...ZdGyB7E8lHE3kWA

[ABLAT Staff]

Sources: U.S. now in control of Haiti...
Nation 'has totally collapsed':
'We are the only ones who can get things done'

Informed U.S. State Department sources tell WND that Washington
has taken de-facto control of earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

"USAID has now taken control [of Haiti]," said one source.
"We [the U.S.] are the only ones who can get things done."

Vice President Joe Biden told reporters at Homestead Air Force Base, Fla., where relief
efforts are underway, that Haiti is a nation "that has totally collapsed."

Full story- http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.print...p;pageId=122199

U.S. Troops Heading for Haiti to Boost Security, Aid

More U.S. troops are arriving in Haiti today after the American commander on the ground said
that security must be improved to ensure aid reaches survivors of last week’s earthquake.

“We need a safe and secure environment to be successful,” U.S. Southern Command Lieutenant General Ken Keen, who is overseeing relief efforts, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “There is increasing incidents of security and we are going to have to deal with it as we go forward.”

Keen said there are 1,000 U.S. troops currently on the ground in Haiti. A further 3,000 other troops are working from ships docked off Haiti’s coast and two additional companies of the 82nd Airborne Division are arriving in addition to Marines aboard the USS Bataan and a Marine landing battalion, the American Forces Press Service said. A total of 7,500 U.S. personnel are scheduled to arrive by today, the U.S. Southern Command said in a statement.

Aid workers are battling street violence and shortages of food, medical supplies after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck on Jan. 12, killing more than 100,000 people. Keen said on ABC’s “This Week” an estimate that between 150,000 and 200,000 people may have been killed is “a start point.” The quake affected 3 million people and left 300,000 homeless in Port-au-Prince, according to the United Nations.

Full story- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aU_HnMNzGw6A

Hillary Clinton meets with Haiti leader after arrival

Christian News

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in quake-battered Haiti
on Saturday afternoon and immediately went into meetings with officials there.

Clinton warmly greeted Haitian President Rene Preval outside a tent
at the airport, where she gathered with military personnel and U.S. ambassadors.

Full story- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas...iti.earthquake/

[ABLAT Staff]

The horrifying moment lynch mob beats to death a looter and drags his body through the streets as Haiti descends into anarchy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ds-anarchy.html

[ABLAT Staff]

U.S. Troops Land in Haiti as Thousands Flee Capital for Safety
Tuesday , January 19, 2010
AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —
U.S. troops landed on the lawn of Haiti's shattered presidential palace to the cheers of quake victims on Tuesday, and the U.N. said it would throw more police and soldiers into the sluggish global effort to aid the devastated country.

The U.N. forces are aimed at quelling the outbursts of violence that have slowed distribution of supplies, leaving many Haitians still without help a week after the magnitude-7.0 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people.

Looters were rampaging through part of downtown Port-au-Prince even as the Security Council voted to add 2,000 troops to the 7,000 military peacekeepers already in the country as well as 1,500 more police to the 2,100-strong international force.

Haitians jammed the fence of the palace grounds to gawk and cheer as U.S. troops emerged from six Navy helicopters.

"We are happy that they are coming, because we have so many problems," said Fede Felissaint, a hairdresser.

Given the circumstances, he did not even mind the troops taking up positions at the presidential palace. "If they want, they can stay longer than in 1915," he said, a reference to the start of a 19-year U.S. military presence in Haiti — something U.S. officials have repeatedly insisted they have no intention of repeating.

A full week after the quake, the capital's port remains blocked and too much aid must flow through the city's lone, small airport. Tens of thousands of people sleep in the streets or under plastic sheets in makeshift camps. Relief workers say they fear visiting some parts of the city.

Just four blocks from U.S. troop landing at the palace, hundreds of looters fought over bolts of cloth and other goods with broken bottles and clubs.

"That is how it is. There is nothing we can do," said Haitian police officer Arina Bence, who was trying to keep civilians out of the looting zone for their own safety.

Police Chief Mario Andersol said he can muster only 2,000 officers in the capital, down from 4,500 before the quake, and they "are not trained to deal with this kind of situation."

European Commission analysts estimate the quake injured 250,000 and made 1.5 million homeless, and many are exasperated by the delays in getting aid.

"I simply don't understand what is taking the foreigners so long," said Raymond Saintfort, a pharmacist who brought two suitcases of aspirin and antiseptics to survivors in the ruins of a nursing home.

Aid workers have distributed more than 250,000 daily food rations, with about half coming from the U.S. military, according to the World Food Program. But that is still far short of the need, and the U.N. agency managed to feed only half the 100,000 people it planned to reach on Monday. It said security forces were not available to escort its trucks and some military staff were injured while retrieving food from a badly damaged warehouse.

LIVESHOTS: Click here to get the up-to-date coverage from Fox reporters at FoxNews.com's LIVE blog.

U.S. military efforts to speed aid through Port-au-Prince's airport appeared to be paying off after days of complaints by frustrated aid agencies: Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command, the airport that handled just 30 fights a day before it was damaged in the quake is now handling 180 a day.

"We're doing everything in our power to speed aid to Haiti as fast as humanly possible," he said.

But the international aid group Doctors Without Borders complained that U.S. controllers have turned away a planeload of medical equipment three times since Sunday despite assurances it could land.

"We have had five patients in Martissant health center die for lack of the medical supplies that this plane was carrying," said Loris de Filippi, emergency coordinator the group's hospital in Cite Soleil.

The group said five other of its planes have been able to land.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said it is preparing two other airfields for aid flights, one in the Haitian town of Jacmel and another in the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, rescuers continued finding survivors.

A Mexican rescue team created after that nation's 1985 earthquake rescued an elderly Haitan woman who had survived a week buried in the ruins of the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop, who died.

Other teams pulled two Haitian women from a collapsed university building as one of the victim's sisters shouted praises to God.

In the city's Bourdon area, French, Dominican and Panamanian rescuers using high-tech detection equipment said they heard heartbeats underneath the rubble of a bank building. The husband of a missing woman watched from a crowd of onlookers.

"I'm going to be here until I find my wife; I'll keep it up until I find her, dead or alive," said Witchar Longfosse.

In New York, the U.N.'s most powerful body voted unanimously to bolster the international peacekeeping corps already in Haiti.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the extra soldiers are essential to protect humanitarian convoys and as a reserve force if security deteriorates further.

The Pentagon announced that the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had established a beachhead west of Port-au-Prince and it expected 800 of the 2,200 Marines in the unit to move ashore Tuesday. U.S. troop strength is rising to about 11,000, part onshore and part on ship.

Canada also has about 2,000 soldiers, sailors and air crew, including two warships, deploying to the towns of Jacmel and Leogane, southwest of the capital, and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Canada is ready to send more.

Italy, Spain and Venezuela say they, too, are sending naval ships to help.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the U.S. troops plan to leave policing to the United Nations force, though he said they can defend themselves and innocent Haitians or foreigners if lawlessness boils over.

Still, some quickly found themselves doing a little policing: Troops of the 82nd Airborne stood guard outside the General Hospital because the crowd had grown so large that it was hindering the work of doctors trying to save lives.

Some neighborhoods are creating their own security forces, forming night brigades and machete-armed mobs to fight bandits.

"We never count on the government here, never," said 29-year-old Tatony Vieux in a hillside district where people used cars to block access to their street.

In the sprawling Cite Soleil slum, gangsters are reassuming control after escaping from the city's notorious main penitentiary and police urge citizens to take justice into their own hands.

"If you don't kill the criminals, they will all come back," a Haitian police officer shouted over a loudspeaker.

Elsewhere, overwhelmed surgeons appealed for anesthetics, scalpels, and saws for cutting off crushed limbs. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, visiting one hospital, reported its staff had to use vodka to sterilize equipment. "It's astonishing what the Haitians have been able to accomplish," he said.

U.S. and Haitian officials warned Haitians against trying to reach the United States by boat. Haiti's ambassador in Washington, Raymond Joseph, recorded a message in Creole to his countrymen, urging them not to leave.

"They will intercept you right on the water and send you back home where you came from," he said, according to a transcript on America.gov, a State Department Web site.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_st...,583325,00.html

France criticizes US 'occupation' of Haiti
Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:26:37 GMT

France is demanding the United Nations investigate and clarify the dominant US role in Haiti, after Washington deployed over 10,000 troops to the quake-hit country.

The demand came after US forces turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the main airport in the Haitian capital.

The Pentagon says it has deployed soldiers in Haiti to help victims of Tuesday's earthquake. This comes as US paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division took control of the main airport in the capital Port-au-Prince on Friday.

The move has raised ire among aid agencies with extensive experience of operating in disaster zones.

"This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti," France's Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet said in an emergency EU meeting concerning Haiti on Monday.

He added that he expects a UN decision on how governments should work together in Haiti, while demanding a clarification of the United States' role in the Caribbean nation.

Joyandet's remarks echo those made by Venezuela and Nicaragua that expressed "deep concern" over the US deployment of troops in Haiti.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton whose country is also blamed for not being quick enough to send aid to the quake-hit nation has denied the occupation charges, stressing on Saturday that the White House had no intention of taking power from Haitian officials.

The US has been accused of interfering in Haitian internal affairs in the past.

The US military played a role in the departure of the former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide before his second term was over in early 2004. Aristide has described his departure as a kidnapping.

Last week's 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti is estimated to have left some 200,000 people dead and more than 1.5 million homeless, with at least 70,000 bodies collected from the rubble so far.

FF/MTM/DT

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=11650...ionid=351020706

[ABLAT Staff]

As tensions rise, orphanage group decides to move
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/201...18/2176891.aspx

[ABLAT Staff]

Haiti earthquake: police open fire on looters

Haitian police have opened fire on a group of looters, killing at least one of them as hundreds of rioters ransacked a market in quake-hit Port-au-Prince.

By Philip Sherwell in New York and Colin Freeman
Published: 3:57PM GMT 17 Jan 2010

A Haitian policeman watches as looters retreat after police fired shots on their arrival to a general store in Port au Prince Photo: EPA

A looter holds a knife as he fights for products in Port-au-Prince: scavengers and looters have preyed on shattered buildings in the widespread absence of authority and order after Tuesday's earthquake Photo: REUTERS

One rioter, a man in his 30s, was killed outright by bullets to the head as the crowd grabbed produce in the Marche Hyppolite.

Another looter quickly snatched the rucksack off the dead man's back as clashes continued and police reinforcements descended on the area armed with pump-action shotguns and assault rifles.

It came as predictions of the death toll from the Haitian earthquake rose to 200,000 as mounting desperation at lack of aid threatens to tilt the country into anarchy.

With up to three million survivors still cut off from outside rescue efforts, the United Nations said the disaster was the worst it had ever dealt with.
Aid officials fear a lapse into all-out lawlessness in coming days unless US troops can get through with vital food, medicine and water deliveries, which are being hampered by the sheer scale of devastation. There were continued incidents of looting, and isolated reports of rescue workers being stoned by angry crowds.

The UN's warning came as the full picture of the horror in the flattened capital of Port au Prince emerged. Haitian ministers claimed the body count could rise far beyond the 50,000 estimate made by the Red Cross officials on Friday, saying that 50,000 bodies had already been buried. Trucks piled high with corpses delivered them to mass graves outside the stricken city, with thousands more still lying uncollected on the streets or buried under heavy rubble.

"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies," said interior minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
If that casualty count is confirmed, it would make Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake one of the ten deadliest on record. The death toll would also rival that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed roughly 250,000 lives. However, officials with knowledge of both incidents said the Haitian disaster - which hit a country already barely functional - posed an infinitely tougher relief challenge.

"This is a historic disaster," said UN spokesman Elisabeth Byrs, whose own organisation has lost 36 local staff in the earthquake. "We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other."
The UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, added: "There have been some incidents where people were looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance.
"We have to make sure that the situation doesn't unravel, but for that we need very much to ensure that the assistance is coming as quickly as possible."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to land in Port au Prince on Saturday to meet with President Rene Preval, who himself has been rendered homeless by the tremor. The Haitian government has handed over control of its airport to the US military, which has landed 1,000 troops into the country already and will bring another 9,000 in coming days to supervise aid deliveries and ensure stability. Some US soldiers had to keep large crowds at bay outside the airport, where some aid supplies have now got stuck because of the difficulties of transporting them into the disaster zone. Doctors at some of the few functioning field clinics complained that they had already run out of medicines.

In Britain, which has sent teams of specialist rescue workers to Haiti, reports of the earthquake's appalling aftermath prompted a quick public response. The Disasters Emergency Committee said £10 million was raised in 24 hours.

International aid efforts have so far been bottlenecked because of damage to the port and airport, where numerous relief planes were unable to land last week because of lack of space and damage to the control towers. The US naval aircraft carrier Carl Vinson arrived off Haiti on Friday with 19 helicopters, opening up an alternative aid delivery channel. But after making 20 deliveries of water and energy drinks, it ran out of supplies by yesterday morning. "We have lift, we have communications, but we don't have much relief supplies to offer," said Rear Admiral Ted Branch.

"There are other supplies at the airport that are under the control of other agencies and we haven't yet coordinated together... unfortunately that doesn't happen overnight."

Some 27 international search and rescue teams, with 1,500 workers and 115 dogs are already active in the disaster zone. A team of British firefighters rescued a two-year-old girl buried beneath a collapsed kindergarten, pulling other corpses aside to get at her.

US rescuers also dug throughout Friday night at a collapsed supermarket where as many as 100 people were feared trapped. They were about to give up, when they were told a cashier had managed to call someone in Miami to say she was still alive inside.

The working conditions for rescue teams remain extremely tough, however. Even with armed security teams, most deemed it unsafe to continue working at night. "It isn't just the challenges of transport and communications, it is security as well," said one UN official. "One rescue team had stones thrown at them."

Haiti's threadbare police force has been largely powerless to keep law and order, although one local police chief said that they were rounding up known gang leaders and criminals, some of whom escaped from a prison damaged during the tremors.

So far the looting and robbery has not been as bad as feared. But rescue officials sense the mood in the city is sullening, and believe violence could become widespread if a substantial aid effort does not arrive soon. On Saturday, four days into the crisis, many Haitians were still digging for loved ones with their bare hands, while others simply wandered the streets in a daze. The stifling heat has made the shortage of drinking water and stench from corpses all the more unbearable.

Yesterday Russel Honore, the retired US general who coordinated the military response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster that devastated New Orleans, said the aid effort for Haiti had been too cautious to start off with.

"The next morning after the earthquake, I assumed there would be airplanes delivering aid," he said. "What we saw instead was discussion about, 'Well we've got to send an assessment team in to see what the needs are.' And anytime I hear that, my head turns red."

Washington denied his claims, saying the operation had been done as quickly as possible. But either way, the scale of the disaster means the initial stages of emergency aid may now only be the beginning. Officials say that up to three-quarters of Port au Prince now need rebuilding, and that US troops may have to be in the country for some six months. Failure to stabilise the situation could lead to a mass exodus of refugees, both into neighbouring Dominica, and possibly also in boats bound for the US.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...on-looters.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Haiti earthquake: US ships blockade coast to thwart exodus to America
A US aircraft carrier is spearheading a blockade of Haiti's waters as America prepares for a mass sea exodus of Haitians with thousands fleeing the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince.

By Bruno Waterfield
Published: 8:53PM GMT 19 Jan 2010

US officials have drawn up emergency plans to cope with a mass migration crisis and have cleared spaces in detention or reception centres, including the Navy base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

The unprecedented air, land and sea operation, dubbed "Vigilant Sentry", was launched as a senior US official compared Haiti's destruction to the aftermath of nuclear warfare.

"It is the same as if an atomic bomb had been exploded," said Kenneth Merten, America's ambassador to Port-au-Prince, as officials estimated the numbers of those killed by last weeks earthquake to over 200,000.

As well as providing emergency supplies and medical aid, the USS Carl Vinson, along with a ring of other navy and coast guard vessels, is acting as a deterrent to Haitians who might be driven to make the 681 mile sea crossing to Miami.

"The goal is to interdict them at sea and repatriate them," said the US Coast Guard Commander Christopher O'Neil.

Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to Washington, recorded a public information message in Creole warning his countrymen not to "rush on boats to leave the country".

"If you think you will reach the US and all the doors will be wide open to you, that's not at all the case," he said.

"They will intercept you right on the water and send you back home where you came from."

In response to America's closed door, Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's President, has offered Haitian descendants of African slaves the chance to resettle in "the land of their ancestors" and offered them plots of land.

"Africa should offer Haitians the chance to return home. It is their right," he said.

US Homeland Security officials said hundreds of immigration detainees have been moved from a South Florida detention centre to clear space for a first wave of Haitians expected to reach America's shores.

The plans, first drawn up in 2003, are aimed at avoiding a repeat of previous Haitian refugee influxes in the 1990s and the "Mariel boatlift" when as many as 125,000 Cubans fled to the US 30 years ago.

In 2004, following political upheaval in Haiti over 3,000 Haitians were stopped attempting to reach America and officials are braced for greater numbers following the worst natural disaster in the region for 200 years.

Janet Napolitano, America's Homeland Security Secretary, appealed to Haitians "not to divert our necessary rescue and relief efforts by trying to leave at this point".

Thousands were said to be on the move out of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday as continuing aid shortages and growing street violence drove people from the city to the countryside.

"Prices for food and transport have skyrocketed since last Tuesday and incidents of violence and looting are on the rise as the desperation grows," warned the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Dieumetra Sainmerita, the manager of Port-au-Prince's main bus terminal, said people were selling whatever they had left of value to buy tickets out of the city.

"First there were the people who lost their houses. Then there were people who lost relatives. Now the people I see, they are afraid of the thieves trying to steal from them in the night," he said.

Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean called on the international community to help with the evacuation of the capital.

"Port-au-Prince is a morgue," he said. "We need to migrate at least two million people."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...to-America.html

[ABLAT Staff]

World asks Israel to send cops to Haiti

Having done such a great job rescuing and treating the victims of the Haiti earthquake disaster, Israel has now been asked by the international community to send peacekeeping forces to the Caribbean nation.

Israel's Public Security Ministry on Wednesday announced that the United Nations and the US had asked Israel to joint peacekeeping efforts in Haiti, and that Israel would respond by dispatching a team of 100 armed police officers.

The officers will undergo a quick physical and mental preparation before departing.

Israel Police forensics teams have already been on the ground in Haiti for almost a week to help identify casualties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the request for peacekeepers, as well as Israel's significant rescue and medical efforts in Haiti, had provided another opportunity for the Jewish state to demonstrate its goodwill and peaceful nature, contrary to how it is often portrayed in the media.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?...8&nid=20421

[ABLAT Staff]

Handling a crisis on the scale of Haiti

People grab at food in Port-au-prince
Many people are hungry and thirsty. Supplies of food and water have been slow getting on to the streets of Port-au-Prince

Troops, doctors and aid workers are flowing into Haiti, while nations pledge millions of dollars in aid. But how do you handle a crisis of this magnitude? Richard Gordon and Mike Evans of the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre, outline the planning and potential pitfalls of such an operation.

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

A fundamental principle of disaster management and international assistance is that it is the stricken country's responsibility to take the lead in inviting in international assistance (via the UN resident representative), and then co-ordinating that assistance to best effect.

In most cases, however, the host government to a greater or lesser extent, will have been incapacitated by the natural disaster, so the UN sends in Disaster and Assessment Coordination teams (UNDACS) to provide initial coordination of international assistance. UNDAC teams tend to deploy for no more than three weeks and then like to hand over once again to the host government. But this may not be long enough for the Haitian government to resume control of its own affairs.

The request for international assistance for Haiti will have been speeded up by the presence of UN troops and other agencies already on the ground.

The US has offered its assistance, in addition to the UN's in-country co-ordination teams. This will provide a significant logistical and command and control element. However, there are likely to be incidents of disagreement between US military and international governments and aid agencies on the ground, as priorities and objectives are set and implemented on Haiti's behalf.

CO-ORDINATION OF INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

Aid from France is unloaded in Haiti
A plane packed with assorted aid arrives in Port-au-Prince

International assistance is co-ordinated in "cluster groups" to ensure that essential aspects of the disaster response are properly co-ordinated and monitored. In Haiti, these cluster groups include:

* water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) cluster: chaired by Unicef
* camp co-ordination management cluster: chaired by IOM for natural disasters
* emergency shelter cluster: chaired by IFRC for natural disasters
* logistics cluster: chaired by WFP
* emergency telecoms and IT cluster: chaired by Unicef / WFP
* health cluster: chaired by WHO
* nutrition cluster: chaired by Unicef
* early recovery cluster: chaired by UNDP
* protection cluster: chaired by OHCHR / Unicef

The UN has a concept of On Site Operations and Co-ordination Centre (OSOCC), which aims to provide that sort of tactical co-ordination to bring together international aid agencies and local government and community representatives.

In the past, there have been issues of who co-ordinates whom. The US is generally suspicious of UN personnel, and NGOs don't generally like to be co-ordinated by military - or by other NGOs for that matter.

The US lead will need to be sensitive in how it deals with these groups and, in particular, how it allows the dissemination of information between agencies. Too often, the military tendency to designate vital information as "restricted" or higher makes it impossible for troops and officers on the ground to share this information with local responders and aid agencies.

COMMUNICATIONS

Man tires to fix mobile phone
Mobile communication is hampered by lack of signal and electricity

A fundamental principle of disaster management is that communications (telephones, mobiles) will fail and, therefore, a back-up needs to be planned. This is very seldom carried out in practice, and in the case of Haiti will have been impossible. Aid agencies will come with their own satellite phones and internet uplinks; the military will have their own comms. For Haiti's people, there will be very little to use to communicate with one another (lack of electricity, land lines, mobiles systems) and their vital need to talk to each other to confirm who is alive or dead will be frustrated. Organisations such as Telephones without Frontiers will make a vital contribution in providing a limited access for users.

DISASTER VICTIM IDENTIFICATION

According to Ian Hanson, Bournemouth University Centre for Forensics, a vital component of disaster management is identification of the dead and injured. There is a danger that with the use of mass graves to remove rotting corpses, many people will never be identified. On top of this, a significant number of people will never be found. Middle and long term psychological stress disorders will be prevalent.

Governments will be demanding that their ambassadors in Haiti get out to find out where their own citizens are, says Mr Hanson. Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) requires the careful collection of post-mortem data from a body and then matching it to existing ante-mortem data. In the case of international citizens in Haiti such ante-mortem data will include dental records, X-rays, fingerprints, and possibly facial recognition. DVI activity after the Indonesian tsunami in 2005 revealed that some 80% of positive IDs were from finger prints or odontology or a combination of the two. Kenyon International and other established organisations are deploying to Haiti to assist in this.

dead woman
A body lies among the debris

For Haitians, there is likely to be an almost total lack of ante-mortem data because standard dental or fingerprint records may not exist. Visual records and identification will be their best chance, however this will become impossible if bodies are left too long before being recovered. The cost of excavating collapsed buildings for the Haitians with limited equipment is also prohibitive in the recovery of bodies, as is the cost of putting a body through an identification process. Many Haitians may never be identified but memorialised in some way. This is part of the reflection of the cost, political will, resources and technical skills available for poorer nations versus rich nations. As with other areas of disaster preparedness and response, there is a gap between who gets identified, if they can be, and where they are from.

SECURITY

Security is always a big issue in managing disasters. The maintenance of public order is a national responsibility. If, or when, the problems exceed the police capacity to handle them - which is probably already the case in Haiti - then the military are normally called in.

The Haitian police and military will both have suffered significant casualties - as has the already weak government.

There is a very high risk that, unless aid gets through much faster to the needy, there will probably be a major breakdown in law and order. This could raise very serious issues with foreign national forces - the US in particular - who are armed and who may be forced to use arms to protect themselves.

UN soldier on street
UN soldiers patrol the ruined streets of Port-au-Prince

Security of routes is essential, as it is roads that become the essential lifelines for logistical support and the movement of essential relief to where it is needed.

Roads are being blocked at present and it appears that the police are unable to deploy in sufficient strength to maintain route security.

As a result, the development of a co-ordinated security plan that uses local police as well as US military and UN troops will need careful co-ordination and agreed rules of engagement for outbreaks of public disorder.

CROSS-BORDER CO-OPERATION

trucks driving into Haiti
Supply trucks from the Dominican Republic arrive in Haiti

Haiti has a land border with the Dominican Republic. Disaster management planning includes the prior agreement of cross-border co-operation protocols to ensure that assistance is not stockpiled at the border unable to cross over owing to import/export regulations which have not been previously sorted.
LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS EARTHQUAKES

Two key lessons will apply - among others, but these are the two most important:

* Survivors want to stay close to where they lived - to be moved into camps is not a favoured option for survivors but it is often the selected option for governments because control is much easier.
* A very difficult decision will be reached in the next few days - when to stop trying to find live bodies and to bring in heavy machinery to clear rubble. Trapped victims dehydrate and die after about four-to-seven days, sooner if seriously injured.

Possibly also worth noting that studies into previous earthquakes indicate that epidemics are not the great threat that media often make them out to be. Good quality water is a key.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8466595.stm

[ABLAT Staff]

President Clinton to oversee Haiti relief, rebuilding efforts
February 3, 2010 4:54 p.m. EST

United Nations (CNN) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon handed President Clinton additional responsibility Wednesday for earthquake-ravaged Haiti, charging him with overseeing aid efforts as well as reconstruction.

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the impoverished nation January 12, devastating parts of the country. More than 200,000 people died from the quake, a spokesman for the country's prime minister told CNN Wednesday.

Ban asked Clinton "to assume a leadership role in coordinating international aid efforts, from emergency response to new construction of Haiti."

"You have demonstrated extremely important leadership," Ban told Clinton, who is already the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti.

Clinton will work with the Haitian government and the people of Haiti in recovery and reconstruction efforts, according to a statement released by Clinton's U.N. office. He will help coordinate the work of U.N. agencies and other international partners in Haiti, including government donors, private investors and non-governmental organizations, the statement said.

"I cannot find any other better suited leader than yourself, Mr. President," Ban told Clinton at the United Nations on Wednesday morning.

Clinton thanked Ban. "I will do the best I can," he said.

"I think the challenges are great; we still have a lot of emergency problems to deal with," he said. "Almost all the infrastructure (is) gone there, so the trick is to get the Haitian people back where they can stop living from day-to-day and start living week-to-week or month-to-month."

Clinton added, "The leaders there want to build a functioning modern state for the first time."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/03/cli...dex.html?hpt=T2

[ABLAT Staff]

Haiti food convoy attacked; UN warns of volatility.

By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer Paisley Dodds, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 2, 2:23 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Twenty armed men blocked a road and tried to hijack a convoy of food for earthquake victims, but were driven off by police gunfire, U.N. officials said Tuesday as they warned of security problems in a still-desperate nation.

The attack on the convoy as it carried supplies from an airport in the southern town of Jeremie underscored the shaky safety in the streets that has added to Haitians' frustration at the slow pace of aid since the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Most quake victims are still living outside in squalid tents of sheets and sticks and aid officials acknowledge they have not yet gotten food to the majority of those in need. Mobs have stolen food and looted goods from their neighbors in the camps, prompting many to band together or stay awake at night to prevent raids.

About 20 armed men blockaded a street Saturday and attacked a convoy carrying food from the airport in Jeremie, according to UN spokesman Vicenzo Pugliese. U.N. and Haitian officers fired warning gunshots and the men fled the scene, Pugliese said. No injuries were reported and no one was hurt.
Haitian police have increased their own patrols and are accompanying UN police guarding aid distribution.

"The overall security situation across the country remains stable but potentially volatile," the UN mission said in a statement Tuesday.

In Jacmel, also a southern city, 33 escaped prisoners were apprehended Sunday, the U.N. said. Many prisoners escaped when prisons collapsed.
While Haitians are still mourning friends and relatives, many still unburied, anger at the government's sluggish response to the quake is feeding political resentment.

About 40 protesters gathered outside the Haitian government's temporary headquarters, holding placards to demand pay for state workers. Many who had jobs before the earthquake can't return to work because buildings have collapsed.

Hundreds more waited outside the migration agency Tuesday to renew their passports in the hope they can leave the country. Others, despairing of government help, paid men to excavate loved ones from the rubble.
Hundreds gathered Monday at a gravel pit in Titanyen where countless earthquake victims have been dumped, turning a remembrance ceremony for the dead into one of the first organized political rallies since the disaster.
Many denounced President Rene Preval and called for the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"Preval has done nothing for this country, nothing for the victims," said Jean Delcius, 54, who was bused to the memorial service by Aristide's development foundation. "We need someone new to take charge here. If it's not Aristide, then someone competent."

Critics were already blaming Preval for rising unemployment, corruption and greed. Then the earthquake struck, flattening most government buildings and turning the capital into an apocalyptic vision of broken concrete and twisted steel.

Preval has rarely been seen in public since, leaving Prime Minister Max Bellerive to defend the government's performance Tuesday as Haiti's Senate met in a prefabricated room at the police academy because its own building collapsed in the quake.

"Even the most advanced countries could not respond to this crisis," Bellerive said. "There is still a government, but we have no buildings. We have no equipment. We have no resources."

The government has asked all non-governmental aid groups in the country to start working with it to improve the often disjointed food distribution.
"It is true we are in need," said Sen. Jean Joel Joseph. "But don't treat us like dogs ... as if we are animals. We ask the prime minister to ask the foreigners to reorganize the way this aid is being distributed. "

Haiti's government also has had to deal with the 10 Americans who tried to take a busload of undocumented Haitian children out of the country. The Idaho-based church group was being held without charges at a police station as officials debated what to do with them.

Bellerive has said they could be prosecuted in the United States because Haiti's shattered court system may not be able to cope with a trial. U.S. Embassy officials would not say if a U.S. court process is possible.

Discontent with Preval appears to be growing, three weeks after the disaster.
"He came Saturday and then just left," said Jude John Peter, 23, in a camp across from Haiti's demolished National Palace, where some 2,000 people are crammed into tents. "He's nowhere to be seen at first and then leaves when things get hot."

Aristide, a former slum priest had a huge following among Haiti's poor, but he was ousted in 2004 as corruption and drug trafficking grew rampant and some of former supporters accused him of abandoning his early followers to line his own pockets.

Aristide has said that he would like to return from his exile in South Africa — a move that would add political instability to the post-quake chaos.
Before legislative elections scheduled for Feb. 28 were postponed, Haiti's presidentially appointed electoral council had excluded more than a dozen political parties — including Aristide's — from the next round of elections in 2011. Opposition groups accused the council of trying to help Preval expand his power.

Across the capital, Haitians have voiced anger over the hasty burials of earthquake victims.

Many Haitians believe that bodies must be properly buried and remembered by relatives and family so their spirits can pass on to heaven. In Voodoo, some believe that improper burials can trap spirits between two worlds.
The mourners on Monday gathered near a white metal cross erected on a mound of gravel that covered nameless bodies dropped into a pit by dump trucks. The corpse of a woman lay uncovered at the base of a nearby gravel pile.

One by one, people tied black pieces of cloth to the cross as a Catholic priest sprinkled the ground with holy water. A choir sang traditional Haitian hymns as religious leaders prayed for the dead.
___
Associated Press Writers Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Geneva.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100202/ap_on_..._earthquake_531