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In Show of Support, Clinton Goes to Haiti Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President René Préval of Haiti spoke to reporters. More Photos Sign In to E-Mail Print Reprints Share Close By MARK LANDLER Published: January 16, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Bearing soap, bottled water and other much-needed supplies, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew into this ruined capital on Saturday and told the Haitian people that the United States “will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead.” Multimedia Photographs Crime Rises as Aid Awaits Distribution Interactive Feature Before and After: The Destruction in Port-Au-Prince Related Officials Strain to Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises (January 17, 2010) A Presidential Triple Plea for Haiti Fund (January 17, 2010) Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected More Haiti Quake Multimedia Is the U.S. Doing Enough for Haiti? What are America's obligations to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake? Join the Discussion » As the United States struggles to organize a relief effort for a barely functioning Haitian government, Mrs. Clinton said she was here at the invitation of the country’s president and came in large part to hear his thoughts on what was needed. Mrs. Clinton arrived shortly before 3 p.m. on a Coast Guard cargo plane that also carried American relief workers. She met for an hour with the Haitian president, René Préval, and with American officials managing an immense rescue effort that is racing against the clock to unearth any remaining survivors. “We are here at the invitation of your government to help you,” she said to Haitian journalists outside a makeshift headquarters. “I know of the great resilience and strength of the Haitian people,” said Mrs. Clinton, who in the past visited the country with her husband when they were newlyweds. “You have been severely tested, but I believe that Haiti can come back even stronger and better in the future.” Mr. Préval, in shirtsleeves, his black shoes coated with dust, expressed gratitude to President Obama for his initial pledge of $100 million in American aid, as well as for organizing a national fund-raising campaign. “Mrs. Clinton’s visit really warms our heart today,” Mr. Préval said over a din of helicopters landing on a nearby runway, “but especially to restate the priorities and the needs and the coordination that needs to be done.” Though the visit is mainly intended as a show of American support for Haiti, Mrs. Clinton said there were a few tangible benefits. In addition to bringing in supplies, her C-130 plane evacuated 50 Haitian Americans who were stranded here — including a baby who was sleeping soundly in a crib before takeoff despite the roar of the aircraft engines. She was also able to deliver some goods to American diplomats. The night before her flight, Mrs. Clinton’s senior staff members prowled the aisles of supermarkets and drug stores buying bulk supplies of toothpaste, mustard, even cigarettes. Although Mrs. Clinton said that the relief effort was gaining traction, she cautioned that the security situation was growing troubling. She said she hoped the Haitian government would pass an emergency decree — something it did after storms devastated the island in 2008 — which would give it the legal power to impose curfews and other measures. “The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us,” Mrs. Clinton said. Mrs. Clinton said she was concerned by a report on CNN that a group of Miami doctors at a makeshift hospital here had been forced to flee, leaving behind their patients, after gunshots were heard in the vicinity. With Haiti’s police force decimated and barely visible on the streets, 7,000 United Nations peacekeepers constitute the only genuine security presence. “We are working to back them up, but not to supplant them,” she said. Up to 10,000 American troops are expected to be in place in Haiti, on shore and off, by Monday. She said the peacekeepers “have been here for years; they have a command and control established.” Mrs. Clinton also said she was sensitive to the suggestion that her visit could impede rescue efforts. She did not leave the airport during her four-hour stop, canceling a visit to United Nations peacekeeping headquarters. The secretary of state was accompanied by Rajiv Shah, the new administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, who is coordinating the American relief effort, and Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff, who oversees Haiti issues at the State Department. Herby Derenoncourt, a Haitian doctor with Catholic Relief Services who lives in the United States, was able to ride on the secretary of state’s plane. He came to help restore a damaged Catholic hospital here. Dominic Crowley, the emergency director of the charity Concern Worldwide who was also on the flight, said he was going to check on his staff of 100 in Haiti, of whom 19 members were still missing. The group is handing out clothing, water and other goods. “Agencies with teams on the ground have been as traumatized as anyone else,” he said. Some of the tasks the United States faces are particularly grim, like helping set up morgues. There are deep cultural issues about treatment of the dead, Mrs. Clinton said, which will complicate the task. Mrs. Clinton said it would be some time before Haiti had a functioning central government; some government buildings are gone, and some officials are dead. “We have to be realistic about it,” she said. Mrs. Clinton last visited Haiti in April, pledging $300 million in United States aid and venturing into Cité Soleil, a once-lawless part of the capital that had been improving before the quake. A few months ago, she noted, her husband, who is the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, held a successful conference in Port-au-Prince, attracting 500 foreign companies. And then, she said, “This happens.” Correction: January 17, 2010 An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Herby Derenoncourt. Officials Strain to Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises Damon Winter/The New York Times People fled gunshots that rang out in downtown Port-au-Prince on Saturday, where the needy were growing desperate. More Photos comments (323) Sign In to E-Mail Print Single Page Reprints Share Close By GINGER THOMPSON and DAMIEN CAVE Published: January 16, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — As the focus on Saturday turned away from Haitians lost to those trying to survive, a sprawling assembly of international officials and aid workers struggled to fix a troubled relief effort after Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. Multimedia Photographs Crime Rises as Aid Awaits Distribution Interactive Feature Before and After: The Destruction in Port-Au-Prince Video Haiti Quake Day 5: Hunger Frays Nerves Video Refugee Camp Swells With Injured (NBC) Video Responders Race to Treat Victims (NBC) Related Looting Flares Where Authority Breaks Down (January 17, 2010) Quake Ignores Class Divisions of a Poor Land (January 17, 2010) A Presidential Triple Plea for Haiti Fund (January 17, 2010) In Show of Support, Clinton Goes to Haiti (January 17, 2010) Haiti in Ink and Tears: A Literary Sampler (January 17, 2010) Haiti Disaster Relief: How to Contribute | Tips on Donating Interactive: The Missing | Connecting to Those Affected More Haiti Quake Multimedia Is the U.S. Doing Enough for Haiti? What are America's obligations to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake? Join the Discussion » Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (323) » While countries and relief agencies showered aid on Haiti, only a small part of it was reaching increasingly desperate Haitians without food, water or shelter. “We see all the commotion, but we still have nothing to drink,” said Joel Querette, 23, a college student camped out in a park. “The trucks are going by.” Hunger drove many to swarm places where food was being given out. Reports of isolated looting and violence intensified as night approached, and there were reports of Haitians streaming out of the capital. Still, recovery and aid efforts were widening. And even the distribution problems in the country stemmed in part from good intentions, aid officials said: Countries around the world were responding to Haiti’s call for help as never before. And they are flooding the country with supplies and relief workers that its collapsed infrastructure and nonfunctioning government are in no position to handle. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Port-au-Prince, met with President René Préval for an hour and assured Haitians that the United States “will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead.” And in Washington, President Obama stood with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who will lead a national drive to raise money to help the survivors. But with Haitian officials relying so heavily on the United States, the United Nations and many different aid groups, coordination was posing a critical challenge. An airport hobbled by only one suitable runway, a ruined port whose main pier splintered into the ocean, roads blocked by rubble, widespread fuel shortages and a lack of drivers to move the aid into the city are compounding the problems. About 1,700 people camped on the grass in front of the prime minister’s office compound in the Pétionville neighborhood, pleading for biscuits and water-purification tablets distributed by aid groups. A sign on one fallen building in Nazon, one of many hillside communities destroyed by the quake, read: “Welcome U.S. Marines. We need help. Dead Bodies Inside!”
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