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Haitian Quake Toll Could Hit 300,000
The Haitian Government has raised the confirmed earthquake death toll to 150,000 and said the figure could double as reports from outside the capital are collated.
A UN truck dumps bodies at a makeshift graveyard, in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince January 17, 2010. (REUTERS/Ana-Bianca Marin) As international donors were preparing to meet overnight in Montreal to discuss rebuilding Haiti, aid agencies said food, water and basic supplies were reaching more people but clinics were also starting to see more infections and complications from amateur medical treatment.
The confirmed death toll in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone had topped 150,000, said the Communications Minister, and more bodies remained uncounted. Corpses are still visible in the rubble in neighbourhoods such as Petionville, Gressier, Carrefour and downtown.
The Government's latest death toll was based on data from CNE, a state company that has collected and buried corpses in mass graves in Port-au-Prince and in a wasteland outside the capital.
It was a sharp spike from Saturday when the UN said the Government had confirmed 111,481 bodies. Before Sunday's statement, authorities had estimated a total of 200,000 dead from the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12. Up to 3 million people are estimated to need aid.
The US military expanded its role when a convoy of Humvees, accompanied by Brazilian UN troops, delivered food packs and water to Cite Soleil, the capital's most notorious slum.
''The aid we have available is being pushed out,'' said Lieutenant-General Ken Keen, commander of US military operations in Haiti. ''But the need is tremendous.''
The UN appealed for more troops to be sent in as police struggled to control fresh outbreaks of looting in the devastated capital while a new aftershock rocked the stricken country.
With 13,000 personnel in Haiti and on ships offshore, the US military has overtaken the UN's peacekeeping mission's capacity. Last Friday it obtained broad authority to control air and sea ports and secure roads to support relief efforts.
Ministers from 11 countries were due to meet in Montreal to co-ordinate international aid to Haiti.
The first high-powered gathering since the earthquake struck would work towards a ''clear, common vision'' of how to rebuild the country, said Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon. There have been calls for a ''Marshall Plan for Haiti'' from some experts on the region, and warnings that the US alone would have to contribute $US5 billion ($A5.5 billion) over the next few years to stabilise its troubled neighbour.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was expected to attend the meeting with other officials including Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the British head of the United Nations Development Program, John Holmes.
Officials said that ideas on the table would include relocating the capital, which lies close to a fault line and is in ruins.
Cuba's Fidel Castro joined a chorus of leftist Latin leaders who have accused the US of ''occupying'' Haiti under an aid banner. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said: ''Obama, send vaccinations, kid, send vaccinations. Each soldier that you send there should carry a medical kit instead of hand grenades and machine-guns.''
GUARDIAN, AFP, TELEGRAPH
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7 Comments so far
Show AllFortunately the weather has been pretty decent in Haiti since the earthquake, but that can't last forever. It is only a matter of time before a bad rainstorm occurs, or worse yet a tropical storm or hurricane. That will make the awful situation the Haitians find themselves even worse. I can only imagine it is going to take years to rebuild decent homes for all the people that lost theirs in the quake.
PURE FICTION: "As international donors were preparing to meet overnight in Montreal"
For surely it is not a donor conference, as only rich owners, rich investors and politicians will be there.
For six families of the rich nobility with European blood own most all the land and wealth in Haiti.
And so in Canada today, while at lease 2,000 Haitians die of starvation, dehydration and massive injuries today, these six filthy rich families, their lawyers, banker, investors and paid actor politicians will decide on how to carve up all the donations and IMF loans that rightly belong to the impoverished people of Haiti.
Ms. Clinton is there, all the ambassadors involved are there, but not one word about the immediate need for our U.S. Marines to bring in the amphibious boats loaded with water and food will be spoken. For it will be all about the land and natural resources, and how best to generate the maximum return on investments by establishing maximum control of the people.
http://www.globalportablebuildings.com/Disaster_Relief.html
Composting Toilets
WaterMills to generate clean drinking water and
EcoPods or something similiar to live in
http://ecopods.ca/gogreen.php
The US government is probably focused on maintaining order more than anything. Allowing the country to fall into chaos, which it may well do even with US intervention, will lead to far more deaths in the future. Sometimes guns are necessary. Sorry, it's the real world. In the meantime, leftist and rightist thugs are capitalizing on the deaths for their own political purposes. How sad.
Ther is not a truthful thing in your remarks. All of it is racist nonsense. The Hatian people, as past disasters show, are fully capable of managing their own affairs if they are given the material resources.
The only thugs that are capitalizing on the deaths are those like Hillary and Bill Clinton and others representing the US government.
Your remarks scream of that toxic mix of USAn ignorance and arrogance. Go away.
Pjd412, I tend to agree with you. The doctors that work there don't seem to find the level of violence a problem at all and as far as looters go one has to put that in context. If you have no home, food or water and you have family to look after then you will take from the rubble whatever you can to barter for survival.
Anyone would do the same, and that is worth repeating.
Yes, there is violence based on greed too but how much more than some areas of the US? Haiti doesn't have any of the infrastructure and services that maintain security in a western society either. I hate to think what parts of N. America would be like under the same circumstances.
I noticed that initially the US military there were careful to point out that they were only there for humanitarian aid and were working under the UN. That really doesn't seem the case any more now that all transportation infrastructure is under US authority.
The new transplanted capital will look so nice with all those McDonald's arches and KFC signs.