Tuesday, January 19 2010

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AT GROUND ZERO: France's Minister of Cooperation Alain Joyandet tours the ruins of the collapsed Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince over the weekend. ...

THE international effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the victims of last week’s Port-au-Prince earthquake was hit by bickering yesterday as a French government minister accused the Americans of trying to occupy Haiti instead of helping it.

Thousands of American soldiers have poured into Port-au-Prince airport since US President Barack Obama announced 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.

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.

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.

Speaking to Europe 1 radio from an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels this morning, Joyandet said that the UN would have to clarify the role of the US in the Haitian aid effort.

“It’s a matter of helping Haiti, not occupying Haiti,” he said. Joyandet’s sniping is likely to anger the White House although the Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, warned both governments and aid groups not to squabble as they try to get their aid into Haiti.

“People always want it to be their plane that lands,” Kouchner said. “What is important is the fate of the Haitians.”