Troops fire tear gas as frantic survivors surge for handouts

PORT-AU-PRINCE – UN troops fired tear gas at desperate Haitians crowding around a food handout outside the wrecked presidential palace yesterday, as delays in getting help to earthquake survivors persist two weeks after the catastrophe.

The Brazilian UN peacekeepers used pepper spray to control a frenzied crowd of thousands of Haitians seeking food at a makeshift camp on the grounds of the palace.

“They’re not violent, just desperate. They just want to eat,” Brazilian army colonel Fernando Soares said. “The problem is, there is not enough food for everyone.” The 7-magnitude quake killed up to 200,000 people and demolished swathes of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other cities. A huge US-led international relief operation is struggling to feed, house and care for hundreds of thousands of hungry, homeless survivors, many of them injured.

Facing persistent complaints by survivors that the huge amounts of aid flown in to Haiti are not reaching them on the ground, US troops, UN peacekeepers and aid workers have widened and intensified the distribution of food and water.

Some of the food handouts in the capital have turned unruly.

At the presidential palace yesterday, UN troops with shotguns handed out sacks of rice with American flags on them.

Armoured trucks formed a cordon to control the crowd and people were searched as they entered the checkpoint.

“Yesterday they gave us rice, but there was not enough. There were too many people,” said Wola Levolise (47), who is living in the camp with her nine children.

The United States has dispatched more than 15,000 military personnel to Haiti. About 4,700 are deployed on the ground, with the rest on ships off the coast.

The US military said it could scale back its involvement within three to six months as other international organisations assume larger roles providing security and disaster relief.

It does, however, plan to help build a 5,000-bed hospital to provide longer-term care for quake victims.

There were signs yesterday the ruined capital was slowly returning to life. A city garbage truck hauled away piles of rubbish at a makeshift camp near St Peter’s Church and a long line snaked outside a bank in the suburb of Petionville. A street market along Rue Geffrard in Port-au-Prince was crowded and chaotic.

As the relief operation for Haiti turns from rescue to recovery, authorities are trying to relocate at least 400,000 survivors – now sheltering in more than 400 sprawling makeshift camps across Port-au-Prince – in temporary tent villages outside the wrecked city.

Health minister Alex Larsen said one million Haitians had been displaced from their homes in the Port-au-Prince area.

The government had tents for 400,000 to be used in the new, temporary settlements, but would need more.

Prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive made an urgent appeal for an additional 200,000 tents at an international donors conference in Montreal, Canada, on Monday.

Almost daily aftershocks have shaken Port-au-Prince since the quake, raising the possibility the city might have to be rebuilt in a safer location, away from geological fault lines.

"In 30 seconds, Haiti lost 60 per cent of its GDP," Mr Bellerive said in Montreal, referring to the concentration of commerce and people in the capital. "So we must decentralise." – ( Reuters)