23357: (Chamberlain) UN-Haiti-Grenada (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By BARBARA BORST

   UNITED NATIONS, Oct 1 (AP) -- Haiti and Grenada need $59 million in
humanitarian aid immediately to cope with the destruction wrought by
hurricanes last month, the top U.N. relief official said Friday.
   "This is immediate humanitarian lifesaving assistance," Emergency Relief
Coordinator Jan Egeland told a news conference, adding that the request
includes $32 million for Haiti and $27 million for Grenada.
   "Haiti is in a class of its own because of the enormous death toll," he
said. "In Grenada, ... the material damage is just unbelievable."
   Hurricane Ivan, on Sept. 7, rolled through Grenada, killing 39 people
and damaging or destroying 90 percent of the island's homes. Tropical storm
Jeanne caused massive floods in Haiti that killed more than 1,550 people
and left 900 missing, most of them presumed dead.
   The storms have left some 300,000 people in Haiti and nearly all of
Grenada's 100,000 people in urgent need, the U.N. Office for Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs said.
   At a conference of donors on Friday, the United States pledged $50
million in emergency and reconstruction aid for the Caribbean region as a
whole, on top of previous commitments, he said. The European Union pledged
$10 million, and Japan, Singapore and several European nations also made
pledges.
   Other Caribbean nations, including ones that suffered during the recent
series of hurricanes, have called for international donors to focus on
Grenada and Haiti and said they will try to manage on their own, he noted.
   Egeland said funds from the U.N. appeal will help provide shelter to
people in Grenada, where the Red Cross is supplying food and drinking
water, and sanitataion and food in Haiti.
   In addition to the floods, devastated areas of Haiti have suffered
looting and other violence, and the country has been wracked by political
turmoil since the ousting in February of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.