23290: Armed gangs rob Haiti's starving children (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Armed gangs rob Haiti's starving children

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=565763

After leaving 2,300 dead, the fourth hurricane of a devastating season now
threatens Bahamas and Florida - again

By Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Andrew Buncombe in
Washington
26 September 2004

Armed gangs roamed Haiti yesterday, stealing food from the hungry and hope
from entire communities as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere
struggled with the aftermath of Hurricane Jeanne. The storm's death toll is
now feared to be at least 2,300, and that figure may yet rise appreciably.

Jeanne is now heading for the Bahamas and Florida, where, if it hits, it
will be the fourth hurricane in this ugly season ­ an event which has not
happened in the US since 1886, and in the "Sunshine State" since 1851.
Hurricanes have so far killed 70 in Florida this year ­ a bad enough
statistic until one turns to Haiti, where more than 5,000 have died in
freak weather and the ensuing floods since May. A total of 300,000 people
are now homeless in the country's north-west province alone.

Hundreds were yesterday being added to shallow, mass graves, one of the few
acts that was not being actively opposed by armed gangs. But gunmen were
stealing food from Haitians outside aid distribution centres as UN troops
were struggling to maintain order.

The secretary general of the Haitian Red Cross, Berthony Marlet, said
additional security was badly needed. He had heard children crying for help
as gunmen entered their homes to rob them of newly distributed food.
"Gunmen have attacked residents who just got assistance and now they are
attacking humanitarian convoys. We definitely need more security on the
ground," Mr Marlet said.

Late on Friday, UN troops from Argentina fired smoke grenades as crowds of
flood victims tried to break into a schoolyard where Care International was
giving grain and water to an orderly line of women.

About 500 men, women and children outside the school tried to charge a
gate, fled the smoke, but returned in surges once the air cleared. "We need
everything ­ bread, clothes, clean water, food," said Mosau Alveus, 25, who
waited hours from dawn and got just one bag of grain.

Images from the north of the country, in particular from the city of
Gonaives, show flooded roads and people struggling through knee-deep mud in
which lie the corpses of animals and humans. Limes have become a much
sought-after commodity in the city of 250,000 because people hold the fruit
to their noses to relieve the stench.

With so many people to bury, survivors are resorting to mass graves to
dispose of the bodies before they cause disease. Some Haitians have
attacked workers trying to bury the dead, complaining that the bodies
received no religious rites ­ something considered extremely important to
prevent a person's spirit from wandering and committing evil acts.

Gus Gavreau, the World Food Programme's director for Haiti, said they have
been able to get food to only about 25,000 this week ­ one-10th of the
city's population. Eric Mouillesarine, a UN humanitarian relief
co-ordinator, said the gangs were mobbing relief workers and seizing
supplies. "The problem here is gangs," he said. "But there's nothing we can
do."

Earlier on Friday, an 18-wheel truck carrying relief supplies from the
Church of God was attacked when it entered the city. People jumped on the
moving truck, prised open the doors and threw out boxes of supplies. Troops
shoved and pushed crowds off the truck.

They escorted it to the mud-baked camp of Argentine UN troops, who stood
guard as church members threw out bananas, bottles of cooking oil and
second-hand clothing. A stampede ensued with people diving into mud to grab
what they could.

Damaged roads are also preventing food reaching the hungry. Aid trucks must
ford floodwaters and mudslides on National Route 1, likely to be more
hazardous after the rains. At least three trucks were mired in ditches
along the road on Friday. With the country's harvest of rice and fruit
already destroyed, the aid agency Care has launched an appeal for $3m
[£1.7m] to provide relief over the next three months.

US experts, meanwhile, said that Jeanne could strike the coast of Florida
sometime today if computer predictions of the storm's likely course were
correct. Jeanne could turn into the latest in a devastating chain of
hurricanes that have rattled south-west Florida (Charley), the state's
midsection (Frances) and the Panhandle (Ivan).

Hurricane warnings were posted from south of Miami to St Augustine in
north-east Florida, and tropical storm warnings extended north to Georgia
and around the tip of the Florida peninsula and along the Gulf coast.
Rainfall of up to 10 inches was expected in the storm's path, and flooding
could be a major concern because previous hurricanes have already saturated
the ground and filled canals, rivers and lakes.

In the Bahamas, a 700-island chain with a population of 300,000, residents
of Grand Bahama and Abaco islands, both still recovering from the ravages
of Frances three weeks ago, packed into shelters as the storm hit.

Several areas were flooded, some up to five feet deep, and gusty winds and
crashing waves buffeted Nassau. Winds ripped up roofs, toppled power lines
and trees, and phone services were knocked out in some areas. There were no
reports of deaths or serious injuries.

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