The perception is that the US, not Haiti's government, is running the country , write RORY CARROLLand TOM PHILLIPSin Port-au-Prince
OFFICIALLY, THE government in Haiti is directing earthquake relief efforts, but the hand-written sign in Delmas, one of Port-au- Prince’s devastated districts, told a different story: “Hello America! We need help here. Urgent! Thank you America!”
The plea cut through diplomatic circumlocutions and political spin to reflect the perception that the US, not Haiti’s government, is running the country.
“Where is our president? Where is our state? I don’t see them. The Americans are everywhere,” said teacher Alois Pierrot (31), as Humvees went by and a Sea Dragon helicopter clattered overhead.
It was an exaggeration. President René Preval has addressed the nation, Haitian police have resumed patrols, and Haitian state trucks are clearing corpses and rubble.
The disparity though between the Haitian state’s feebleness and US capacity has grown more apparent with each passing day since the January 12th quake.
With the presidential palace and other offices destroyed, Haiti’s cabinet meets under a tree in a police station compound. The building is drab and littered with loose ceiling panels and hanging wires.
Preval bristled when a reporter asked whether foreign troops threatened sovereignty. “We are talking about people suffering and you are talking about ideology.”
Information minister Marie- Laurence Jocelyn-Lassegue, four mobile phones arrayed in front of her, said the government was in charge. “We are taking responsibility.” US and UN officials echo that line like a mantra.
In a telling indication of perceptions, though, the US embassy is besieged by supplicants while the government compound had just a handful of people seeking aid. Out in the ruins, help signs initially written in Creole and French were changing, like the one in Delmas, to English.
Jean Daniel Delone, an unemployed language teacher, reckoned US troops would stay for a long time. “Maybe 30 years, and I’m happy. They’re going to create jobs. After the help I think something will happen – like they might occupy this country.”
Delone said Haiti was not in a position to choose who would help.
“It’s like they say: if you can’t take care of your house, somebody is going to have to do it for you. There might be something behind the help, but for now, I just know that it is help. The Haitian government can’t develop this country on its own.”
There are now 20,000 US troops either in Haiti or offshore. Under an accord signed last week, the US controls the airport and seaport and has responsibility for security. Senior French and Italian officials have criticised the Pentagon’s leading role, and leftist figures in the US, including Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte, have warned about the “over-emphasis on security”.
Regional leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales have branded the US response an imperialist occupation under an aid banner.
Gordon Duguid for the US state department said: “The government is sitting, they are working.” US forces would stay as long as they were requested to by the Haitian government. The Pentagon said it expected to hand back authority and responsibility over a six-month period