Security Woes Slow Haiti Storm Aid

Tons of food aid are piled high in a warehouse guarded by U.N. peacekeepers in this flood-stricken city, where hungry people wander the streets day after day searching for help and some are attacking relief trucks in desperation.

Sacks of wheat, lentils and other foods were stacked in the warehouse because repeated looting of aid trucks has made it difficult to get relief to those most in need, aid workers say.

The United Nations has 750 peacekeepers in the city of 250,000 but the entire force in Haiti only numbers 3,000 — well below the 8,000 promised when it took over from U.S. Marines in June.

"The problem is not a lack of food. It's security and a lack of trucks," Ricardo Mena, an official of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Thursday.

Some residents are growing impatient with humanitarian groups, which are stretched thin as they try to cope with the aftermath of floods that killed more than 1,500 and left some 900 missing. About 300,000 people are homeless, 200,000 of them living on sidewalks and rooftops of mud-filled homes in Gonaives.

"The aid workers aren't doing enough to help. They're not even coming to the communities where there are problems with gangs," said Rony Coq, 30, himself a member of the Bottle Army gang that operates in Cassolet. It's a slum still feet-deep in feces-contaminated mud spewed after a 30-hour pounding by Tropical Storm Jeanne shattered the sewerage system nearly two weeks ago.

U.N. troops have fired shots in the air and smoke grenades to keep order while aid workers have handed out food. But scuffles have broken out over the food distributed and Haiti's powerless police force says gangs are breaking into people's homes at night to steal food aid.

Troops also have dragged looters off trucks, some of them shouting back "We're hungry!"

Aid groups say more help is coming and the security situation appears to be improving.

Residents worry that acute long-term needs for food, water and medical help will not be met.

"The foreigners are here now, but soon they'll be gone and then what do we do?" worried Maxilia Talma, a 43-year-old resident of Gonaives.

Margaret Ann Lorway, a Roman Catholic nun helping distribute aid, said major hurdles remain. "The distribution is very, very hard and I think it's the same people who keep getting the food," she said, meaning the weakest and neediest are going hungry.

About 1,500 tons of food aid remained in a warehouse run by the aid group CARE International and guarded by U.N. troops, said CARE spokesman Rick Perera.

He said the aid group has distributed more than 423 metric tons (466 U.S. tons) of food aid to more than 100,000 people, and has stepped up the pace since the United Nations sent reinforcements at the weekend.

Relief workers now have four food distribution centers in Gonaives, giving out some 80 tons a day, Mena said. Aid groups also are working to provide 40,000 gallons (151,000 liters) of water a day at kiosks throughout the city, Perera said.

"We had seven trucks (of aid) come in today. You can't just throw it out in the streets. You've got to have property security and logistics in place," Perera said. "Security is constantly improving and as a result we are able to distribute more and more each day."

Aid workers also are fanning out into smaller northwestern towns with doctors and relief supplies, though the main city there, Port-de-Paix with a population of about 45,000, can be reached only by air because of flood-damaged roads, Perera said.

The storm ravaged an estimated 24,700 acres of the most fertile land in Haiti, with mud covering the area that produces up to 40 percent of the bananas, beans and sweet potatoes consumed in the country, according to agronomist Jean-Andre Victor told The Associated Press this week.

"If Haitian-international cooperation is slow to respond (to farmers' needs), there is risk of famine in those regions," Victor warned.

Perera said CARE is rushing to provide seeds and tools to thousands of rural farmers before the planting season in October and November. But farmers in one community reachable only on foot said they could not plant until people helped them bury corpses clogging irrigation canals.

Aid workers said the situation in Gonaives remains tense, with angry people still facing off with troops.

"There is not a lack of food in Gonaives," said Guy Gavreau, the U.N. agency's director in Haiti. He said the "security problem" is being solved and very soon "most of the people in Gonaives will have food."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew visited Thursday and said he was encouraged by "major progress" in the transportation of aid. The United Nations on Thursday launched an appeal for $30 million in emergency aid for Haiti.

In the past week doctors have had to treat patients despite shortages of antibiotics and anesthetics. Argentine doctors have been operating on festering wounds using only local anesthetics and performed at least four amputations in primitive conditions with no running water or electricity.

Trucks carrying aid have been slowed because they travel damaged and flooded roads.

Chilean troops have been ferrying in supplies by helicopter, but not enough.

This week U.S. President George W. Bush asked Congress for US$50 million for storm-hit Caribbean countries, with about half for Haiti. The announcement came Monday, days after the United States came under criticism for an initial aid announcement of US$60,000.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy announced an emergency grant of US$500,000 for health care, saying it was part of nearly US$2 million in U.S. aid given since the storm.

"The U.S. was very slow on the uptake. Really the initial response planted a fair amount of skepticism in the Caribbean," said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based foreign policy research group.

He said the United States had risked handing over more regional influence to Venezuela, which immediately pledged US$1 million and a boatload of relief supplies, and Cuba, which has 66 doctors based in Gonaives helping treat the wounded.