Survivor searches ending at collapsed Haiti school
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Rescuers at a collapsed school in Haiti are ending the hunt for survivors and will soon demolish the remains of the building, where at least 87 people were killed.
"Rescue workers and experts are making the last check to be certain there is nobody alive under the debris," Nadia Lochard, civil protection director for Haiti's west department, said on Sunday.
"Then we'll change phase. ... We'll start using heavier means to remove the debris and blocks of concrete. We will recover all the bodies and destroy the building," Lochard said.
Four survivors were pulled from debris on Saturday, a day after 150 others were injured by the tumbling floors, walls and rubble of the three-story La Promesse school. No other survivors have been found since, according to officials.
Disaster experts, officials and rescue workers had held back from using heavy equipment at the site out of fear wobbly blocks of concrete and other debris might fall on possible survivors under the rubble.
"We are trying the best we can to make sure no one alive is under the debris by the time we start using heavier equipment," said Eucher Luc Joseph, secretary of state for public safety.
The disaster occurred on Friday, during classes at the church school on the Haitian capital's outskirts.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is recovering from four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed more than 800 people and destroyed 60 percent of its crops in August and September.
Firefighters from Fairfax, Virginia, and rescue workers from Martinique were among the searchers and were using dogs to hunt for survivors.
"We get to a stage of the operation, where we need to go to heavier equipment-based operation," said Evan Lewis, a leader of one of the Virginia rescue teams. "There are some risks (people may still be alive in the debris), but we minimized them as much as we can."
The owner of the school and church, Protestant minister Fortin Augustin, was arrested. Haitian President Rene Preval said the school, with an enrollment of 700, had been built with hardly any structural steel or cement to bind concrete blocks.
Haiti names new PM amid food crisis
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Haiti on Sunday named a new prime minister two weeks after his predecessor was ousted over rocketing food and fuel prices that sparked violent demonstrations claiming several lives.
President Rene Preval chose Ericq Pierre, 63, a respected Haitian economist with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, to be the country's prime minister, Senate President Kelly Bastien and Chamber or Deputies president Pierre-Eric Jean-Jacques told AFP.
Pierre, whose nomination must now pass a vote in parliament, would succeed former premier Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was forced to resign on April 12 after a no-confidence vote followed food riots that killed six people and wounded around 200.
It was the first major political crisis to seize the country since Preval was elected president of the impoverished nation in February 2006, after two years of turmoil sparked by the departure of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Thousands of people took to the streets around Haiti earlier this month due to the latest jump in food and fuel prices, in sometimes violent demonstrations that forced United Nations troops deployed here to intervene.
One Nigerian peacekeeper was killed in the riots and three Sri-Lankan peacekeepers were wounded.
In a bid to quell the frustrations, Preval announced a plan to bring down rice prices by cutting the cost of a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of rice that had doubled to 70 dollars within a week, by eight dollars, or 15 percent.
He defended Alexis as having done what he could in the face of global increases in food prices, and said it was "unfair" to place all the blame on him.
However, pressure had grown on the government in the current crisis, felt around the world and particularly in Haiti, where 70 percent of the population lives on less than two dollars per day.
Half of the Haitian population of 8.5 million people is unemployed.
Pierre, who lives in Washington and works as an advisor on Haiti to the IDB, was named in 1999 by Preval to serve as prime minister, but did not receive enough votes in parliament to be confirmed.
This time, however, several lawmakers said they believed his nomination would pass muster.
"The Lavalas party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in exile in South Africa, is ready to vote for the nomination of Mr. Pierre," Senator Rudy Heriveaux told AFP.
"I believe that he (Pierre) perfectly matches the profile that all the sectors have recommended. I hope though that he will listen to their demands," said Heriveaux, who met Sunday with Preval hours before the official announcement of the Pierre nomination.
"We are going to hold a meeting of party leaders to decide our position," said the social-democratic Fusion party, a center-left grouping of around 20 parliamentarians.
One diplomat said "Preval was without doubt assured of (Pierre's) approval by political forces within Parliament before he made his choice."
"He had time to consult all the sectors of the chamber and in the Senate, and one can assume that the choice will be accepted," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers were called in to protect the presidential palace, using tear gas and firing into the air to repel demonstrators at the height of the unrest.
Among the six people killed in the disturbances was a 36-year-old, out-of-uniform UN police officer from Nigeria.
The 10,000-strong United Nations Stabilization Force in Haiti (MINUSTAH) launched a joint investigation with Haitian police into the killing.
Haiti facing 'major food crisis'
Malnutrition is widespread in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world
Haiti faces a "major crisis" if the international community does not increase food aid to the country, the UN's food agency has warned.
The World Food Programme director for the region, Pedro Medrano, said Haiti required more help to feed its poor.
He appealed for $54m (£27m) in new funding to counter food prices which have risen sharply around the world.
At least six people were killed in Haiti last month as protests over rising prices turned violent.
The prices of wheat, rice and other staple crops have nearly doubled in the last year in response to rising global population, higher fuel costs and increased demand from India and China.
'Silent tsunami'
The United Nations ranks Haiti as one of the least developed countries in the world, and the poorest in the western hemisphere.
More than half of the population lives on less than $1 per day and chronic malnutrition is widespread, says the WFP.
At least six people died when protests over price rises turned violent
"This is a major crisis," said the WFP's Pedro Medrano as he visited Haiti. "Are we going to intervene when it's too late?"
Legislators sacked Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis over the food crisis on 12 April and there are fears of further unrest.
"It is not so important how much money we are able to raise for our cause," said Mr Medrano.
"The question is how much the international community and all of us are prepared to pay for not doing what needs to be done."
The WFP has asked for $54m in new funding to provide Haiti with 50,000 tonnes of food until the end of the year.
The agency has called the food price increases a "silent tsunami" and warned that the rises are expected to continue.
The damage could be felt for years - mountain topsoil, already loosened by rampant deforestation, washed out to sea. Hundreds of irrigation basins, canals and pumping stations were damaged, and about 10,000 tons (9,000 metric tons) of discounted fertilizer distributed to farmers disappeared.
Altogether, Gue estimated the storms caused $180 million in damage to Haiti’s agricultural sector.
Food prices in some hard-hit cities have been pushed to even greater heights. After Ike, which brushed by Haiti on Sept. 7, the cost of U.S.-imported rice had doubled in Gonaives to $5.38 for a large can. For millions of Haitians already facing malnutrition, a daily bowl of rice has become too expensive.
Jacques-Edouard Michele’s family used to depend on the rations of rice and plantains his father was paid to work in the Artibonite fields.
“Even before the storms, we were hungry,” he said. “Now we are looking everywhere for food.”
If the world does not respond with long-term aid, experts warn that deadly food riots could re-ignite, unraveling Haiti’s fragile political stability.
“The situation is calm for now but it could easily erupt again,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said this week.
