UN: Haiti quake problems overwhelm world response

Feb 24, 2010, 18:46 GMT

New York - The giant earthquake that hit Haiti has caused 'huge, difficult and complex' challenges never encountered by the United Nations before, which will affect and delay the world relief to the underdeveloped Caribbean nation, a UN official said Wednesday.

Not all of the 1 million Haitians who have lost their homes to the magnitude-7 quake that struck Port-au-Prince on January 12 will be sheltered when the rainy season hits in coming weeks, said Anthony Banburry.

Some 350,000 homeless have so far received shelter, living in tent cities, while a current plan calls for providing shelter to all homeless people.

'It's not going to be easy for the quake victims and we have to be realistic,' said Banburry, the acting principal deputy UN special envoy for Haiti. He was sent to Haiti five days after the earthquake and has remained there with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

'In Haiti, the UN response is not perfect and we still have a long way to go,' he said.

Banburry said the Haitian earthquake and the massive loss of lives and buildings have created problems with a magnitude that far surpasses the humanitarian crises when the tsunami hit Indonesia in 2004 and Cyclone Nargis destroyed the delta in Myanmar in 2008.

'The earthquake was like a dagger in the heart of Haiti,' Banburry said.

He cited the destruction of most major government buildings in Port-au-Prince, particularly the ministry of justice, the Supreme Court and police headquarters, which robbed the country of its judiciary system and crippled the government of President Rene Preval.

UN and Haitian officials said Wednesday the death toll from the mammoth earthquake has climbed to 222,517 and the number of injured to 310,000.

Banburry said the UN-led relief campaign to assist the 3 million people affected by the quake, including the 1 million homeless people, is 'not perfect' because of the overwhelming and complex problems.

He cited the problem of shelter for the homeless. Finding a site to set up tents means clarifying land ownership and providing or certifying sanitation. Sanitation can be made worse during the rainy season because of the lack of facilities and the threat of diseases spreading among the population.

'We have to solve all those problems simultaneously,' Banburry said. He said the Haitian crisis is totally different from previous humanitarian crises in which relief was handled in clusters that were not totally dependent on each other to make them work.

In Haiti, shelter and sanitation, which is a major problem, is linked with the resolution of land ownership, he said as an example.

Haiti's judiciary and police systems are overwhelmed by criminals who escaped prisons destroyed by the earthquake. About 7,000 prisoners walked out of their collapsed prisons, including an estimated 300 hardcore criminals who have regrouped into gangs, the UN said.

Banburry said the UN peacekeepers in Haiti had not been prepared to face earthquake problems and suffered the trauma of losing some of their own people to the quake.

Ninety-nine UN personnel were killed and seven are still unaccounted for, he said.

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund said it was working with Haiti's central bank to design a partial credit guarantee fund aimed at maintaining financial stability and restarting private sector credit.

'This proposal will be critical to allowing the private sector to fully play its role in rebuilding the economy and providing jobs, in the context of the broader reconstruction and economic recovery,' the IMF said in a statement.