As the trickle of International Aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti is gradually becoming a steady flow, a dismaying picture is emerging of how the relief effort is being carried out. Since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday 12th January aid has been slow to arrive. Many of the world's governments and aid agencies immediately rallied to the call, pledging huge sums of money and medical supplies, as well as search and rescue teams to help the thousands still trapped under buildings. But one week after the earthquake the relief effort has barely got under way.
Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, announced last Wednesday that the U.S. is offering its 'full assistance to Haiti and others in the region'. Along side the 'disaster response teams' to be sent by USAid, America will also be deploying up to 13,000 troops to help provide 'humanitarian assistance'.
The heart of the relief operation is the airport at Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, which is now under the control of the U.S. Military. A report from Aljazeera English describes it as looking 'more like the green zone inside Baghdad than a centre for aid distribution'. This has drawn anger and frustration from a devastated population who have seen little of the vital food and water supplies being amassed within its heavily guarded perimeter.
Reports have emerged that planes carrying aid supplies were not allowed to land at the airport and were instead diverted to the Dominican republic. The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has claimed that this was the case for 5 of its planes that were bringing teams of doctors and crucial medical supplies. A French plane carrying a field hospital was also turned back, according to DemocracyNow.
For the people of Haiti, whose suffering grows with every passing minute, the face of the relief effort is not one of international co-operation, but one of occupation. UN and U.S. troops have been deployed en masse to safeguard the 'security' of the country, while the distribution of food, water, medical supplies and rescue equipment is slow in coming.
Where aid does get through, it will arrive far too late for many of the thousands who have languished for almost a week without any kind of assistance. Questions have now been raised about the way in which some aid is being distributed. DemocracyNow reports that the UN and other large aid agencies have been denied access to certain 'Red-Zones' that have been established by military forces. Elsewhere, fury and indignation has been sparked by one charity who were seen throwing food parcels from a helicopter, as one would throw a 'bone to a dog', according to one witness.
The devastation in Port-au-Prince is immense. A large percentage of the capital's buildings are in ruins, dead bodies lie rotting in the streets and an estimated one million people have been made homeless. Haiti-based journalist Kim Ives has described the scenes as reminiscent of Gaza.
Despite both having a large military presence in the country, neither the UN or the U.S. has taken the responsibility of co-ordinating the relief effort. In the words of Irish journalist John O'Shea the lack of logistical oversight has turned the earthquake into a man-made disaster.
For the Haitians, the presence of American soldiers will not be interpreted as wholly benign. Lieutenant-General Ken Keen, commander of the US military operation in Haiti announced this week that his troops would be playing a security role: "We are here principally for a humanitarian assistance operation, but security is a critical component," he said. However, the large scale military deployment has led some critics of American foreign policy to raise serious doubts over why they are there.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has accused America of trying to 'take advantage of the tragedy', and indeed he has history on his side. Recent U.S. foreign policy is directly responsible for the terrible poverty and under-development of Haiti; conditions that have greatly exacerbated the scale of the earthquake's devastation.
So as the corporate media of America and the world gladly celebrate the collaboration of former presidents Clinton and Bush on the 'Clinton Bush Haiti Fund' (“partnering to help the Haitian people reclaim their country and rebuild their lives”) we might like to remind ourselves of the noble work they both achieved while in office. This is how Randall Robinson, author of An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President, describes it:
'Of course, President Bush was responsible for destroying Haitian democracy in 2004, when he and American forces abducted President Aristide and his wife, taking them off to Africa, and they are now in South Africa. President Clinton has largely sponsored a program of economic development that supports the idea of sweatshops. Haitians in Haiti today make 38 cents an hour. They don’t make a high enough wage to pay for their lunch and transportation to and from work. But this is the kind of economic program that President Clinton has supported .'
