Haiti: Desperation as aid fails to reach many

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sunday

Relief workers in Haiti struggled for the fifth day Sunday to assist desperate earthquake survivors amid anger over the chaotic aid effort, as two former US presidents admitted the country's recovery will be long.

Aid continued to trickle in but failed to reach many of those most in need after Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake brought death and misery on an unprecedented scale to the impoverished and dysfunctional Caribbean nation.

Former US presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, named by the White House as special coordinators of aid to Haiti, vowed late Saturday they would not abandon the stricken country. "It's a long road to full recovery, but we will not leave the Haitian people to walk it alone," they wrote in an op-ed piece in The New York Times.

They said that in the future, Haiti will need better schools, sturdier, more secure buildings and diverse industries that create jobs and foster opportunities for greater trade. US helicopters crews flew in and unloaded boxes of vital supplies as massive queues formed at distribution points where the UN's World Food Programme handed out high-energy food.

An AFP journalist witnessed one US helicopter dropping a half-dozen small cartons into a stadium of starving Haitians, some brandishing machetes as they fought over the items. As the fate of whole towns and villages around the capital in western Haiti remained unclear, the United Nations said it had never before faced such a humanitarian catastrophe.

"We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP in Geneva. The destruction found Saturday in the town of Leogane, just 17 kilometers (10 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, was staggering -- street after street of homes and businesses torn apart.

"It's the very epicenter of the earthquake, and many, many thousands are dead," said WFP spokesman David Orr. "Nearly every house was destroyed here. The military are talking about 20,000 to 30,000 dead." Emergency teams of French doctors working for Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) said they had "never seen so many seriously injured".

Since their arrival, "the surgical units of MSF in Port-au-Prince have been working non-stop" to help the injured, the organisation said. "Priority is being given to the most urgent cases. The teams have carried out caesarians and amputations," it said. But the organisation said its work was being seriously hampered by disruptions at Port-au-Prince's airport.

MSF already had 30 volunteers working in Haiti when the quake struck and has since been able to send in another 70 international workers to the capital. "It is becoming increasingly clear that a large number of our Haitian staff did not survive the catastrophe," MSF said, adding that it was still trying to locate others and was concerned about their welfare.

The latest overall toll from the Haitian government is at least 50,000 people dead and 1.5 million homeless, but those figures could soar once the full extent of the tragedy is known. Early estimates had spoken of 100,000 dead. The UN said increasing numbers of Haitians were trying to cross the border into the Dominican Republic, to the east, and reported a surge of quake survivors fleeing to northern cities.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the highest-ranking US official to visit Haiti since the quake and highlighted the urgent need to clear logistical hurdles. "As President (Barack) Obama has said we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead," she told Haitians.

"You have been severely tested, but I believe that Haiti can come back even stronger and better in the future." The two former US presidents urged the international community to "help the Haitian people realize their dream for a stronger, more secure nation.

"But we need more than just support from governments," they argued. "We need the innovation and resources of businesses; the skills and the knowledge of nongovernmental organizations, including faith-based groups; and the generosity and support of individuals to fill in the gaps."

They called for donations through their website: www.clintonbushhaitifund.org.