by Jack Lee
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Haitian authorities have buried 40,000 bodies and believe another 100,000 people probably died in this week’s earthquake, a senior official told Reuters on Friday.
Roaming bands of young men were carrying machetes, looting and robbing everywhere you go”, said one aid worker. Others just sat helpless in the streets, sobbing, looking for a handout, anything food, water, just anything. Haitians were angry at the so-called “slow” response for money, food, clothing, shelters and medical aid despite the global outpouring of millions in aid and relief workers right from the onset of the earthquake.
Haitians in the streets cursed America for not doing more! “What’s going on? We can’t even breathe! Who is helping us?” a man cried out today to an ABC News camera crew. Wearing a yellow bandana over his face and surrounded by other young and angry men, he said, “It takes one night to get the U.S. troops here, you know. It takes just a second for the military to get here.” The man did not comment why he was not helping the relief workers search for more victims. In fact none of the able bodied young men could explain why they were not busy helping others in great need.
“We’re waiting, we’re waiting for three or four days. Just cannot do nothing,” another Haitian man said. “The president is staying at the airport while he does nothing for us.”
The roads are being blocked with corpses delaying transportation of aid. One commenter said, “Poverty and lack of education aside, if they’re blocking the roads, how can help get through to everyone in need? Leave it to the greedy few in front… they’re deterring aid to all in need.”
A US news reporter was surrounded by a gang of angry men with machete’s and they made it clear they will not restrain themselves much longer if the US doesn’t do more to help them.
Meanwhile rescue workers from many nations were desperately seeking manpower from outside Haiti to help remove rubble to reach potential trapped victims. The United States government and the Red Cross has deployed several thousand aid workers and military personnel, but there still remains a critical shortage of people willing to help in the rescue effort. Time is running out for those who may be trapped.
The Haiti situation was not unlike the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, where so many victims of a natural disaster sat and waited for somebody to come fix things and provide for them. The parallels in New Orleans and Haiti were remarkable in terms of violence and crime and the paralysis of the local people to do anything to help themselves. Instead, these disasters became an opportunity for “victims” to rob, kill and loot without any fear of police interference. In Haiti there was little to be looted, which only added to the frustrations of the mobs bent on violence.
One military leader suggested actually shooting the looters and any gangs armed with knives, guns and machete’s in order to restore order. This suggestion was categorically rejected as too extreme.