Helping Haiti is helping survivors themselves

Confronted with dire circumstances in the capital Port-auPrince as well as forgotten towns abound the Caribbean island nation such as Jacmel, the United States, Canada, the Europeans and the United Nations have initiated massive humanitarian operations. Moreover countries ranging from the neighboring Dominican Republic to Columbia, and places as far as Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan have sent rescue teams and assistance.

For the U.N. itself there was an immediate calamity. Its headquarters at the Christopher Hotel in Port au Prince coordinating humanitarian efforts, security and communications was flattened by the earthquake causing the largest loss of life ever at a U.N. mission and shattering the coordination center for first-responders. Among those buried in the rubble including Mission Chief Hedi Annabi of Tunisia, his Brazilian Deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa, and Police Commissioner Doug Coats of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who perished among 60 others including a friend of this column. Over 150 U.N. staff are still missing and presumed dead.

Theirs was a humanitarian impulse cut short by fate.

Critics naturally abound and there is little doubt that bureaucracy, bottlenecks and red-tape have blocked what could have been a faster initial delivery of food and medicine.

The United States has operational control of the airport ensuring the anchor for an air bridge of assistance to pour into the country.

More than 12, 000 American troops are in Haiti to provide assistance and security and back up the 9,000 member U.N. peacekeeping forces and a fledgling Haitian police. There are more than fifty international search and rescue teams such as those from New York City Police and Fire Departments who have made amazing and miraculous discoveries.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution adding 3,500 additional troops and police to the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated, “These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures and extraordinary decisiveness.”

He added that “we distributed daily food rations for yesterday for nearly 200,000 people. We expect to be reaching approximately one million people within a week.”

Ban stressed, the U.N. “will continue to stand behind the Haitian people.”

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