Saturday, January 16 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Hundreds of US troops touched down in earthquake-shattered Port-au-Prince overnight and were soon handing out food and water to stricken survivors, as relief groups struggled to deliver aid yesterday and fears spread of unrest in Haiti’s fourth day of desperation.

Pockets of looting flared across the capital. Small bands of young men and teenagers with machetes roaming downtown streets helped themselves to whatever they could find in wrecked homes.

“They are scavenging everything. What can you do?” said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house. Hard-pressed government workers, meanwhile, buried thousands of bodies in mass graves. The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday’s cataclysmic earthquake.

More and more, the focus fell on the daunting challenge of getting aid to survivors. United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said people’s anger was rising that aid hasn’t been distributed quickly, and warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.

Ordinary Haitians sensed the potential for an explosion of lawlessness. “We’re worried that people will get a little uneasy,” said attendant Jean Reynol, 37, explaining his gas station was ready to close immediately if violence breaks out.

“People who have not been eating or drinking for almost 50 hours and are already in a very poor situation,” UN humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva. “If they see a truck with something, or if they see a supermarket which has collapsed, they just rush to get something to eat.”

The logistical obstacles were many. “There are a lack of trucks, lack of fuel, blocked roads and so on,” UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said in New York.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, said the UN World Food Programme began delivering food Thursday and as of yesterday was feeding about 8,000 people several times a day, with high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals.

“Obviously, that is only a drop in the bucket in the face of the massive need, but the agency will be scaling up to feed approximately one million people within 15 days and two million people within a month,” he said. The UN would set up 15 food-distribution centres, he said.

The WFP already had food warehoused in Haiti before the quake, and would be flying in much more. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella noted the regular food stores in the city had been emptied by looters.

See page 21A