22140: Esser: Jamaica offers help to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

May 29, 2004

Jamaica offers help to Haiti
Assessment of flood damage being compiled
Observer Reporter


JAMAICA yesterday offered to assist flood-ravaged Haiti, pending an
assessment of conditions on the ground by a multi-sectoral committee
comprising the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency
Management, the Urban Development Corporation, and the National
Housing Development Corporation, as well as the army.

However, the government is hoping to work alongside international
agencies already stationed in Haiti in the disaster relief efforts,
state minister in the foreign ministry, Delano Franklyn told the
Senate yesterday. He said the formation of the committee was on the
instruction of the prime minister, P J Patterson.

Franklyn made the announcement after Opposition Senator Bruce Golding
raised the matter on the motion for adjournment during yesterday's
sitting of the Upper House.

Golding urged the government to intervene on humanitarian grounds,
notwithstanding strained diplomatic relations between Kingston and
Port-au-Prince.

Golding had said that he was not aware of a diplomatic response to
the Haitian disaster and argued that on sheer humanitarian grounds,
Jamaica had an obligation to assist Haiti, which unlike the Dominican
Republic did not have an effective disaster response capability.

"They have no effective military, no ODP (Office of Disaster
Preparedness), it is only the international agencies that are
assisting," said Golding, who recommended the dispatching of a
contingent from the Jamaica Defence Force to help Haiti.

"At a time of crisis a diplomatic conundrum does not matter. The
government of Jamaica is hoping to work through international
agencies already on the ground in Haiti," Franklyn responded.

Haiti in March recalled its ambassador to Jamaica and cut diplomatic
links with the Caribbean Community (Caricom), of which the country is
a member, after Prime Minister Patterson agreed to give temporary
asylum to ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who said
he was forced out of his country on February 29. Aristide, who was
flown to the Central African Republic, arrived in Jamaica on March
15. He is scheduled to leave for South Africa tomorrow.

Haiti remains a member of Caricom, but the government of interim
prime minister, Gerard LaTortue is yet to be recognised by the
regional grouping.

Strife-torn Haiti was this week lashed by more than 60 inches of
rainfall in some sections of the border region it shares with its
Spanish-speaking neighbour the Dominican Republic.

The resulting flooding and mudslides has left an estimated 1,000
persons dead and the toll is expected to climb higher when a better
assessment is made of the conditions when the floods recede.

Frankly told the Senate that Prime Minister Patterson was being
briefed on the situation in Haiti and that his office had begun to
put together the recommendations he requested in an effort to frame
an appropriate response.

An AFP report yesterday said 50,000 were homeless, helpless and
hungry in Mapou - the Haitian town hardest hit by the deadly flood
waters. The report said aid workers yesterday dragged bodies from
flood waters and handed out food and fresh water to survivors, who
reported that children appeared to have been the biggest loss from
flash floods and mudslides that cascaded down denuded mountains.

There are also threats of epidemics from decaying bodies following
the three days of heavy rains which hit during the night and took
most people by surprise.
.