Bill Clinton visits Haiti government amid protest
Bill Clinton (L) speaks with Haiti's President Rene Preval (R)
PORT-AU-PRINCE : Former US president Bill Clinton was met by angry crowds protesting the slow arrival of aid to quake-ravaged Haiti as he arrived here Friday for his second visit since the disaster.
"Our children are burning in the sun. We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter," said Mentor Natacha, 30, a mother of two.
The protesters said they hoped to meet Clinton, who was designated Wednesday as coordinator of international aid for the impoverished Caribbean nation by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
As Clinton entered the police building which has become the government's de facto headquarters in the ruined capital Port-au-Prince, about 200 people from a northern neighborhood demonstrated outside at the lack of shelter.
Clinton's arrival comes amid persistent problems in getting aid to the estimated one million Haitians left homeless after the January 12 quake which leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns.
It also comes as controversy rages over 10 American Christians detained on child kidnapping charges for trying to smuggle 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic.
The five men and five women were charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy by Haitian prosecutors on Thursday. The group has denied ill intent.
The Haitian authorities, under pressure to clamp down on child trafficking and to show the country's crippled government can get on its feet, have insisted the 10 be tried in Haiti.
But a lawyer for the group said the prosecutor's office was examining a request for the group to be released pending their trial.
"We are asking that they be released provisionally pending their trial," said Edwyn Coq. "I'm working to have them free today."
The case has overshadowed the huge international relief effort which Clinton, as a special UN envoy for Haiti, has spearheaded.
The former US president told AFP, however, that working for the group's release was not within his mandate, saying the State Department was handling talks with the Haitian government.
US ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Marten, meanwhile, welcomed Clinton's visit saying: "It's a huge symbol of the international community's commitment to this country ... It's a great signal to Haitians, too."
An estimated 212,000 people were killed by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, making it the worst recorded natural disaster in the Americas.
Before his arrival in Haiti, Clinton defended the pace of incoming foreign aid and praised doctors working in shocking conditions.
The United States, which is spearheading the relief efforts, has deployed 20,000 troops, helicopters and transport planes, but coordination problems and the sheer scale of the crisis have hampered operations.
"More than three weeks after the earthquake, the relief efforts in Haiti have been increasing to meet staggering needs, but the long road to recovery has just begun," Clinton said in a statement ahead of his trip.
He was also expected to visit Port-au-Prince's Gheskio medical clinic where his foundation said he would deliver "water, food, medical supplies, solar flash lights, portable radios, and generators donated by Home Depot (and) Walmart."
The head of the clinic, Jean William Pape, told AFP the clinic has been overwhelmed since the 7.0-magnitude quake.
"It has been huge on us because in addition to providing the care to our HIV/AIDS patients, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, we have to take care of around 6,000 refugees," he said.
"We don't have enough supplies. We don't have tents for them and the rainy season is coming and we live in a flood area."
Meanwhile, authorities were trying to confirm the identities of two men killed when their helicopter crashed Thursday en route from Haiti to the Dominican Republic. They were thought to have been involved in the aid operation.
"We can not yet determine the nationality of the deceased. For now, the information we have is that it was an American-registered aircraft," a Dominician aviation spokesman said.
AFP /ls
