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US Troops to Be Re-Deployed to Haiti

   VOA News 21 January 2010
   Haitians gather for relief supplies

Photo: AP

   U.S.  soldiers  work to organize earthquake survivors who gathered for
   disaster relief supplies in Port-au-Prince, 19 Jan 2010

   U.S.  military  officials say an amphibious force of 4,000 sailors and
   Marines will be diverted from scheduled deployments elsewhere and sent
   to Haiti to assist in earthquake relief efforts.
   A similar unit began to deploy onshore west of the devastated capital,
   Port-au-Prince  Tuesday.   The new deployment will bring the number of
   U.S. forces being sent to Haiti to about 14,000.
   U.S.  President  Barack  Obama  told  the ABC television Wednesday the
   United  States  cannot afford to ignore the trouble in Haiti.  He also
   said  the  U.S. does not want its relief efforts to appear as if it is
   taking  over  the  Caribbean country.  Mr. Obama said he wants to make
   sure  that when America projects its power around the world, it is not
   seen only when it is at war.
   A  powerful  aftershock  jolted  Haiti  on Wednesday, sending panicked
   residents  screaming into the streets and bringing down some buildings
   already ruined by last week's 7.0 magnitude earthquake.
   The 5.9 magnitude aftershock added to the trauma caused by the January
   12  quake  that  devastated the capital,and surrounding areas, leaving
   hundreds of thousands dead or homeless.
   U.S.  Secretary  of  State Hillary Clinton told reporters at the State
   Department  that  officials  are  closely monitoring the impact of the
   aftershock, which wrecked a pier that was to be used as a staging area
   for patients.
   The  aftershock was felt on the U.S. Navy hospital ship, USNS Comfort,
   which  reached  Haiti  early Wednesday and has begun accepting injured
   survivors for treatment.
   The  United  States  also is sending a vessel designed to clear debris
   blocking  the  main port in Port-au-Prince.  That debris has prevented
   larger   ships   with  food  and  other  vital  supplies  from  making
   deliveries.

   Officials  estimate  the  earthquake  affected three million people in
   Haiti,  about  one-third of the population of the Western Hemisphere's
   poorest  country.   Some  200,000  people  are  believed  to have been
   killed.
   Survivors  are  living  in  makeshift  camps  on streets littered with
   debris  and  decomposing  bodies.   Doctors  are  struggling  to treat
   thousands of injured with limited resources.
   Some  damaged  buildings in the Haitian capital have been ransacked by
   people  searching  for  supplies.   U.S.  troops  have  been providing
   security  for  food and water deliveries.  About 3,500 additional U.N.
   security personnel are being sent to Haiti to help prevent looting.
   The  World  Food  Program said it will try to get fresh aid to as many
   people  as  possible.   But  officials  said  relief efforts have been
   hampered  by blocked roads, bureaucratic confusion and the collapse of
   local authority.
   Secretary  Clinton  Wednesday defended the U.S. relief efforts, saying
   it  is  "really  remarkable" how much has been accomplished, given the
   challenges.
   Clinton  said she will head to Montreal, Canada, next Monday to attend
   a   conference  on  generating  better  coordination  among  countries
   providing   disaster  relief  to  Haiti,  and  laying  groundwork  for
   long-term recovery and reconstruction efforts.
   In  Britain,  Prime  Minister  Gordon  Brown  said  he has spoken with
   President  Obama  about  helping  to reconstruct the shattered Haitian
   government.  Britain is tripling its aid to Haiti, from $10 million to
   $30 million.

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