PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Haiti’s quake-ravaged people yesterday the United States would work with their government to ensure the country emerges “stronger and better” after this week’s disaster.
“We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead,” Clinton told a news conference at Port-au-Prince airport, saying she wanted to speak directly to the Haitian people after a meeting with their President Rene Preval.
“You have been severely tested. But I believe that Haiti can come back even stronger and better in the future,” she said.
Preval expressed gratitude for the huge relief effort that has unfolded after Tuesday’s earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people and left devastated Haiti’s ramshackle capital.
“Mrs Clinton’s visit really warms our heart today,” Preval said through an interpreter, adding that it would help to establish the priorities and coordination necessary to keep the relief work running.
Clinton underscored that the US aid drive — involving thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines along with civilian aid workers — was done at the invitation of Haiti’s government and said she and Preval would issue a joint communique today outlining the way forward.
As the sound of aircraft bearing relief supplies momentarily drowned out the microphone, Clinton was upbeat.
“That’s a good sound,” Clinton said. “That means good things are coming and helping the people of Haiti,” she said.
Clinton’s quick one day trip is designed to avoid complicating the relief effort, with hundreds of thousands of Haitians still desperately waiting for assistance as scavengers and looters take advantage of the widespread absence of authority and order.
Clinton first flew to the Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen in Puerto Rico, where she transferred to a Coast Guard C-130 transport plane carrying emergency food and water rations along with toothbrushes, doughnuts, underwear and other supplies for US embassy personnel.
She was due to evacuate some 50 US citizens when she left yesterday.
Clinton said the relief drive was aimed at immediate needs such as water, food and medical help along with on-going rescue work for people still trapped in the rubble.
She said she and Preval had also discussed the future, which US officials say could involve a major international effort to improve conditions in Haiti, which remains the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
Before her arrival, Clinton told reporters travelling with her that the Haitian government, itself battling to recover from the quake, had given the US government leeway to meet emergency needs.
But she said this could be further expedited if the Haitian parliament passes a decree granting Preval’s government more emergency powers — some of which could be delegated to the United States — such as imposing a curfew.
She said the United States would continue to work with both the Haitian government and the United Nations, which has about 7,000 peacekeepers on the island and primary responsibility for security.
“We are working to back them up, but not to supplant them,” she said.
The United Nations announced yesterday that the chief of its mission in Haiti had also perished in the earthquake, along with his deputy.
