U.N. Haiti mission head calls for global efforts to rebuild quake-hit nation+

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 Kyodo -
The international community should join hands with Haiti as it rebuilds from
January's magnitude-7.0 quake to help it ensure it can withstand an equally big
earthquake in the future, a task which will take more than 10 years, the head
of the U.N. mission in Haiti has said.
In a recent phone interview with Kyodo News from the Haitian capital
Port-au-Prince, Edmond Mulet, acting special representative of the U.N.
secretary general and head of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH), addressed many challenges the world body and the Haiti government
are facing now and will face in the future.
Nearly 100 U.N. officials were killed in the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake,
including special representative Hedi Annabi, who headed MINUSTAH, and deputy
representative Luiz Carlos da Costa.
''We are always prepared for the worst-case scenarios -- for example for
hurricanes and for floods, for civil unrest, for political upheavals, for many,
many things. We are ready to assist the government to provide relief,'' Mulet
said. ''But we were never prepared to be the victims of such an earthquake. We
were hit hard.''
Mulet said about 400 members of the U.N. Haiti mission have been tirelessly
working at a logistical base set up near Haiti's international airport since
the Christopher Hotel, where the mission's headquarters were housed, collapsed.

''We sleep on sofas, on chairs and in cars. We have three showers for 400
people, a few toilets -- so everyday living conditions for all of us also have
been very, very difficult,'' the 58-year-old Guatemalan, said.
Transportation of relief goods was significantly hampered in the first two
weeks because two ports in the capital were completely destroyed while the sole
airport, which has only one landing strip, was out of action due to damage to
the control tower.
But things are improving now, Mulet said, referring to the around-the-clock
operation of the airport following its reopening thanks to U.S. military
support and a decision by the neighboring Dominican Republic to keep its border
with Haiti open 24 hours a day.
These measures have expedited flows of relief goods such as food and water into
the affected areas, he said.
The United Nations has established 16 food distribution centers across the
capital and has issued food coupons. Only for use by women, the coupons can be
exchanged for 25 kilograms of rice at the food centers. ''This is going pretty
well,'' Mulet said.
In spite of improvements for the Haitian people in securing basic daily
necessities, both the United Nations and the Haiti government have been
fighting an uphill battle on the security front.
Rapes and food theft are rampant in temporary tent camps set up for people who
have lost their homes in the quake, according to Mulet. He also said 5,000 of
the country's 8,000 inmates escaped from prisons after the earthquake.
''They are the most dangerous criminals and gang leaders and bandits. We know
that they are reorganizing themselves and trying to control some neighborhoods
in the city or even some of them going into the countryside to hide,'' he said,
citing the need to arrest them ''as soon as possible'' before they reorganize.
With the rainy season only a few months away, followed by the hurricane season,
a growing concern for the United Nations is how to provide shelters for
homeless people.
Mulet said more than 200,000 people are still living at locations without roofs
or other shelter. ''Tents are being distributed but there are not enough. We
need more tents.''
He believes these tents are not strong enough to protect against severe weather
conditions such as heavy rain and hurricanes.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has stepped in to provide a helping hand. As
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's special envoy in charge of humanitarian
coordination in Haiti, Clinton has bought 27,000 foul-weather tents from
Bangladesh.
If these tents prove to be effective, he will buy more, Clinton said.
Mulet said the United Nations needs to secure ''sturdier, heavier and
stronger'' prefabricated houses in the mid- and long-run. But ''it's not
easy,'' he said, citing the cost and time involved.
Mulet expressed gratitude to the Japanese government for sending a Self-Defense
Forces engineering unit to Haiti to engage in such tasks as clearing away
rubble, repairing roads and doing drainage work.
''What we need here now urgently are engineering units,'' he said, pinning high
hopes on the SDF unit operating in Port-au-Prince where most of the quake's
damage occurred.
Preliminary assessments show that 63 million tons of rubble need to be cleared
in the capital, he said.
Asked how long Haiti reconstruction would take, Mulet reiterated that it would
not be sufficient to simply restore the country to the way it was before the
disaster.
''Port-au-Prince sits exactly on a very active tectonic fault. And scientists
and seismologists now confirm that this fault during the earthquake of the 12th
of January, released a lot of energy on one side of the fault, but still some
other parts of the tectonic fault have to release more energy,'' he said.
''The tension is there and it has to happen. The only problem is we don't know
when. But we know it's going to be a very hard, very strong earthquake again.
So this has to be taken into account in the vision of recovery and
reconstruction of the country,'' he explained.
Mulet said there is a need to stop thinking about ''reconstruction,'' which he
said implies reverting to what was there before, and to focus instead on
''constructing'' Haiti with different standards.
Not only its infrastructure but also its administrative and political
institutions need to be rebuilt, he said, adding it will take more than 10
years for the international community to engage in the task.
==Kyodo
2010-02-11 21:13:30