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| Corpse roadblock by protesting survivors |
| By nationalpost.com |
| Published: 01/15/2010 |
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Desperate Haitians set up roadblocks with corpses in Port-au-Prince yesterday to demand quicker relief efforts after the massive earthquake that killed an estimated 50,000 people. Angry survivors staged the protest as international aid began arriving in the Haitian capital to help a nation traumatized by Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings. More than 48 hours after the disaster, tens of thousands of people clamoured for food and water and help digging out relatives still missing under the rubble. Shaul Schwarz, a photographer for Time magazine, said he saw at least two downtown roadblocks formed with bodies of earthquake victims and rocks. "They are starting to block the roads with bodies. It's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help," he told Reuters. While world leaders pledged hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of troops, delivery was a logistical nightmare, and aid was arriving only in a trickle. The main airport was so overwhelmed by planes carrying foreign aid that incoming U.S. flights were suspended. Aid distribution was also hampered because roads were blocked by rubble and smashed cars. Relief agencies' offices were damaged and their staff dead or missing. Chaos still reigned everywhere. Power was still out and telecommunications rarely functioning. Most medical facilities had been severely damaged, if not levelled. Supplies of food and fresh water were dwindling. Ships could not bring their cargos of supplies into Haiti's damaged port. The national police had all but vanished, and officials reported looting at a collapsed grocery store. Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered their noses with cloth to try to block the stench. Corpses were delivered by the pickup truck load to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where hospital director Guy LaRoche estimated the bodies piled outside the morgue numbered 1,500. The Haitian Red Cross had run out of body bags and the International Committee of the Red Cross was sending more. The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000 people had died and three million more -- one third of Haiti's population -- were hurt or left homeless by the major 7.0-magnitude quake. The quake flattened buildings across entire hillsides and many people were still trapped alive in the rubble after two days, with little sign of organized rescue efforts. "We have already buried 7,000 in a mass grave," President Rene Preval said. The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical personnel, several ships and 2,200 Marines. "To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken. ... America stands with you. The world stands with you," President Barack Obama said. Canada stepped up its humanitarian response. Four Canadian Forces aircraft and two ships were dispatched yesterday. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was also examining the possibility of easing immigration rules to allow Haitians into Canada, where more than 100,000 Haitians live, many in Montreal. Canadian officials also confirmed the deaths of four Canadian citizens -- including an RCMP officer assigned to the UN mission in Haiti. Sergeant Mark Gallagher, 50, an RCMP media relations officer previously based in Halifax, had been in Haiti since July training and mentoring Haiti's police force. Canada's top official with the UN mission, RCMP Superintendant Doug Coates of Ottawa, is still among the missing. Read More. |
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