HAITI: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Haitians near the destroyed presidential palace

Record ID: 561071

  • Title: HAITI: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Haitians near the destroyed presidential palace
  • Date: 18th January 2010
  • Summary: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (JANUARY 17, 2010) (REUTERS) UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON GETTING OUT OF VEHICLE AND BEING SHOWN HAITIAN PRESIDENTIAL PALACE IN DISTANCE BAN MEETING WITH HAITIANS GATHERED NEAR PALACE FENCE AND GROUP OF HAITIAN MEN AND BOYS SAYING (FRENCH AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION): "We don't have food. We don't have medicine. We need for the bodies to be taken out." (SOUNDBITE) (French) UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON, SAYING: "The events that have just happened are tragic, but the international community and the whole world are with you." BAN WALKING AND WAVING BAN WALKING WITH SECURITY MEN AND THEN STOPPING TO SHAKE HANDS WITH PEOPLE WOMAN SITTING WITH CHILD (SOUNDBITE) (English with French translation) UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON, SAYING: "I'm here to give you hope, and the whole world is supporting you. Do not despair. Do not despair. Have a strong courage." WOMAN REPLYING (OFF-CAMERA) (French with English translation): "We will not despair. We believe in God."
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA7M615QZV712QV26S0ZZLAPT81
  • Story Text: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Haitians gathered outside the destroyed presidential palace in Port-Au-Prince Sunday (January 17), pledging support from the international community.
    Scores of Haitians, many of whom having lost their homes in last week's earthquake, have gathered outside the palace.
    "We don't have food. We don't have medicine. We need for the bodies to be taken out," one group of Haitian men and boys told Ban.
    "The events that have just happened are tragic, but the international community and the whole world are with you," Secretary-General Ban told one group.
    World leaders have pledged massive assistance to rebuild Haiti after the earthquake killed as many as 200,000 people, but five days into the crisis aid distribution was still random, chaotic and minimal.
    Hundreds of thousands of hungry Haitians are waiting for help, many of them in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies.
    "I'm here to give you hope, and the whole world is supporting you. Do not despair. Do not despair. Have a strong courage," Ban told one woman.
    "We will not despair. We believe in God," the woman said to Ban through an interpreter.
    But some Haitians were clearly frustrated. One group shouted to Ban as he re-entered a UN vehicle to make sure international relief was given directly to the people - not the Haitian government.
    "Don't give him a dime because they are all thieves: Preval and all of his senators. Don't give a dime to Preval and any of his senators," one man said, referring to Haitian President Rene Preval.
    "They should distribute the aid through the people. The government of people are a bunch of thieves and they should give the money directly to the people," another man said.
    With Haiti's overstretched police and U.N. peacekeepers unable to provide security and people turning more desperate by the day, hundreds of looters swarmed smashed shops in downtown Port-au-Prince in a second day of violence.
    President Rene Preval said Sunday that 3,500 U.S. troops would be deployed to help U.N. and Haitian forces restore security in the capital.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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