23511: (Chamberlain) U.N. may divert food aid for Haiti due to unrest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     GENEVA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Unrest in Haiti may force the United
Nations to divert ships carrying food for flood victims to the Dominican
Republic, where the aid can be put on trucks, a U.N. spokesman said on
Tuesday.
     Tropical Storm Jeanne killed 3,000 people last month and left 100,000
in the coastal city of Gonaives dependent on food help from the U.N.'s
World Food Programme (WFP), spokesman Simon Pluess told reporters.
     But some shipping firms are refusing to dock in the capital
Port-au-Prince, where 113 food containers are stuck, after two weeks of
violence between Haiti's U.S.-backed government and supporters of exiled
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     "The possibility of letting incoming vessels dock in the Dominican
Republic and transporting food to Haiti by truck is under consideration,"
Pluess said.
     Since the flooding, the WFP has distributed more than 1,700 tonnes of
food, mainly in the Gonaives region, where 200,000 people were left
homeless. Stocks held by other aid agencies including Care International
are running low.
     The Rome-based WFP, which was already feeding some 500,000 Haitians
prior to Tropical Storm Jeanne, says that the 100,000 flood victims it is
helping will need rations for five months.

     (For more news about emergency relief visit Reuters AlertNet
http:/www.alertnet.org email: alertnet+reuters.com; +44 207 542 2432.)