EU plays down talk of Haiti rift with US

EU plays down talk of Haiti rift with US

www.ft.com

Fuel shortages, poor communications and a logjam at the Port au Prince airport on Sunday continued to hinder a massive international aid effort to Haiti five days after a devastating earthquake in which more than 100,000 are now feared to have died.

The United Nations humanitarian agency, Ocha, warned at the weekend that humanitarian operations might be forced to shut down in the next few days if fuel supplies were not replenished.

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[edit on 1/19/2010 by semperfortis]

No food yet for Port au Prince disaster victems! 5 days and counting.

Haiti's Port AU Prince airport is hopelessly overloaded. Many including the French are playing the blame game.

"The French news agency AFP also quoted people trying to leave Haiti as complaining that the US was giving priority to its own citizens. The US military re-established operations at the airport after its control tower was damaged in the earthquake. Kenneth Merten, US ambassador, told AFP: “We're working in co-ordination with the United Nations and the Haitians. “Clearly it's necessary to prioritise the planes."

A huge planeload of biscuits had to land in Dominican Republic and come over by road:

"An aircraft carrying more than 20 tonnes of high-energy biscuits landed in the Dominican Republic from El Salvador and was heading to Port au Prince by road."

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[edit on 1/19/2010 by semperfortis]

reply to post by plumranch


5 days and little food or water! This is beginning to make New Orleans look like a cake walk!

Lynch mob turns on luters

Six days after the Port-au-Prince earthquake large areas of the city remain untouched by the global aid effort as bottlenecks continue to clog the airport and looting threatens to descend into wholesale violence.

[edit on 18/1/10 by plumranch]

I have not read any articles today yet.....but I'm wondering if they are doing any 'drops' for food/water? You would think that if the port was destroyed and the airport tied up, that dropping in food would be the best thing to do. Maybe it is too hard to coordinate it on the ground and they are afraid it would lead to a mob?

This just seems like such a horrible situation. Here are all the richest nations offering to give food/supplies to the poorest country and it is coming down to logistics. It is an island. It is hard to comprehend sitting here safe at home, the horrors that must be going on there right now. I pray they find a way to move the supplies and that the people of Haiti get the help that they need....now and in the future.

reply to post by westcoast

You would think that if the port was destroyed and the airport tied up, that dropping in food would be the best thing to do.

6 days now! And it is starting to look like the PTB in the US, France, the UN are very incapable of dealing with a disaster like this!

reply to post by westcoast


This is absolutely ridiculous. Even if huge air drops of food does cause mobs they could drop so much that there would be plenty to go around. Plus the airport isn't the ONLY place for planes to land. What about from the sea i.e. water? Port Au Prince is right by the ocean. Why don't the damn Haitians make their way to the ocean and they can ferry people back and forth, make drops, and just flood the area with boats and ships. This disorganization and complete lack of coordination is pathetic and scary on so many levels. I mean of course there aren't going to be roads and wouldn't disaster teams plan for this kind of stuff? Of course the airport is going to be damaged in an earthquake and ports and what not. Just goes to prove Murhpy's law and that you can't rely on anyone but yourself........least of all government. I thought these disaster teams and aid organizations prepare for this crap? Looks like they have no clue what to do.

reply to post by westcoast
There have been a few drops that I could find video of... it's rather intense

the CNN link

MSNBC vid






[edit on 18-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

reply to post by plumranch


Oh but many ATSers have said they are professionals and they spend millions of dollars researching and preparing for this stuff. L OL....... yeah right! I mean my god if the worldwide response to this crisis is this pathetic I can only wonder how the US military fights wars or other countries for that matter. Government is and always will be one of the most useless and inefficient entities EVER!

In watching those videos on the drop, the reporter said that a US base had been set-up nearby and that they were going to find out who did the drop, so it wouldn't happen again.

It doesn't make sense. If there is a military force nearby, why aren't they distributing that food? For fear of riot? Why are they even there then? What is the purpose of sending over all the personel and supplies if they aren't going to DO anything with it?

I know the whole situation is just a mess....you have literally millions of people that are displaced in an already lawless land. I have to share in the confusion of the other posters though. Six days in, and from the reports, it sounds like the biggest problem is a lack of fuel and inability to get the supplies to the people. This is a representation of the super powers of the world?

How long until the world forgets again about the Haitians and they are left to succumb to the world they are now left with, stuck on this island with no law, resources or escape? I noticed that they are no longer the leading news on internet sources such as MSN and Yahoo...to be replaced with such worthy articles like how to know if your mans sex life is in trouble, who won the golden globes and exercise infomercials. I imagine it will only be a few more days before you have to dig a little deeper to find current news.

Our ability to ignore what is going on around us and to just not even think about it unless we are directly affected is so very disturbing. My soul still aches from the thousands and thousands of lives that were lost all at once, but when I speak about this I often get a look of complete dis-association.

I just read a current article on MSN and I continue to be confused.

Apparently, the US has taken over the airport and it is a complete bottleneck. Incoming aid flights are being turned away, forced to land 200 miles away and drive in...delaying deliveries by 24 hrs.

The U.S. has completely taken over Port-au-Prince airspace and incoming flights have to register with Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, said Chief Master Sgt. Ty Foster, Air Force spokesman here.

article

Doctors Without Borders spokesman Jason Cone said the U.S. military needed "to be clear on its prioritization of medical supplies and equipment."

So what exactly are the priorities? An elderly woman outside a destroyed nursing home only .5 mile from the airport said they had not recieved any aid.

My concern is if the US military is taking a military stance rather than one of humanitarian/relief? I am getting that impression from this article and others. I know that some sort of law and control needs to be established, but I don't see that happening either. Why take control of the airport and then prevent/hinder the incoming aid?

[edit on 18-1-2010 by westcoast]

I will tell you all that we are incapable of giving aide to catastrophes such as these....

Thisi is why TPTB all have bunkers.

As Bush said: SEND MONEY! SEND MONEY!

Not funny, but just plain disgusting and ironic. I'm fed up with this whole charade. I wonder what REALLY HAPPENED and for what reason.

reply to post by westcoast

My concern is if the US military is taking a military stance rather than one of humanitarian/relief? I am getting that impression from this article and others. I know that some sort of law and control needs to be established, but I don't see that happening either. Why take control of the airport and then prevent/hinder the incoming aid?

There have been several incidents of relief workers being injured. That's one of the largest concerns so the military will have a large roll helping out and maintaining order and safety! Here's one report, I just heard a French report of 30 injuries!

US citizen dies in Haiti incident

I mentioned earlier that Haiti is one of the most corrupt, dangerous and violent countries in the western hemisphere so aid workers are concerned!

reply to post by westcoast


France andAmerica bicker as Haiti aid fails to reachcity

The international effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the victims of last week's Port-au-Prince earthquake was hit by bickering today as a French government minister accused the Americans of trying to occupy Haiti instead of helping it. Thousands of American soldiers have poured in to Port-au-Prince airport since President Obama announced that he was ordering a "swift and aggressive" campaign to help millions of Haitians left homeless by last week's 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Six days after the quake, however, precious little aid is getting beyond the airport perimeters - largely because of security concerns - and aid agencies with long experience of operating in disaster zones have complained that their flights in are being blocked unnecessarily.

Actually what the French were PO'd about was their big hospital jet that was turned back because of excessive air traffic:

Among the aircraft turned back by American air traffic controllers who have assumed control at Port-au-Prince airport was a French government Airbus carrying a field hospital

That would make you mad!

The plane was able to land the following day but the decision to turn it back prompted an official complaint from Alain Joyandet, the French Minister for Co-operation who is overseeing the French aid effort

[edit on 19/1/10 by plumranch]

It's getting to the point now where I don't care who's aid gets through. It is time for action, and all we can do is bicker.

The thing I'm wondering is how much of this effected the Dominican Republic? I haven't heard anything about them yet they are attached to Haiti. You would figure if the quake hit Haiti it would have hit the DR. Right?

reply to post by westcoast


According to a UN official, all these troops landing are blocking the aid effort :

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Haitian relief efforts were being hobbled by the U.S. military trying to land equipment while aid agencies wait with supplies, a United Nations official said.

The United States has taken a leading role in earthquake relief efforts and was managing air traffic control, with 200 flights per day, from the main airport at Port-au-Prince.

Most of the flights involved the U.S. military landing equipment and troops, said Jarry Emmanuel, the air logistics officer for the United Nations aid effort in Haiti.

The priorities of the U.S. military "are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync," Emmanuel told The New York Times Sunday.

U.S. officials said they were making significant progress and beginning to use a container port in Cap Haitian in northern Haiti to increase the flow of aid, CNN reported Sunday

www.upi.com...