French minister criticizes US aid role in Haiti

[Pathfinder]

French minister criticizes US aid role in Haiti

The Associated Press

Monday, January 18, 2010; 3:27 PM


PARIS -- The United Nations must investigate and clarify the dominant U.S. role in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a French minister said Monday, claiming that international aid efforts were about helping Haiti, not "occupying" it.

U.S. forces last week turned back a French aid plane carrying a field hospital from the damaged, congested airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, prompting a complaint from French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet. The plane landed safely the following day.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned governments and aid groups not to squabble as they try to get their aid into Haiti.
"People always want it to be their plane ... that lands," Kouchner said Monday. "(But) what's important is the fate of the Haitians."

But Joyandet persisted.

...more at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011801850.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: French minister criticizes US aid role in Haiti

French Groups Criticize Handling of Relief Flights

By DOREEN CARVAJAL
</NYT_BYLINE>Published: January 22, 2010
<NYT_TEXT>

PARIS ? Far from Haiti?s battered international airport, relief groups are growing more strident in their complaints about how coveted landing spots are doled out among charity groups and prominent visitors by the U.S. Air Force.

M?decins Sans Fronti?res, the international emergency medical relief group that was founded in France, has seen eight of its planes from Europe diverted, the most recent on Wednesday.

?It?s a very confusing situation and difficult to understand,? said Marie-No?lle Rodrigue, deputy director for operations for M?decins Sans Fronti?res in Paris.

She acknowledged the severe damage to the Port-au-Prince airport, where the control tower was destroyed by the earthquake on Jan. 12 and traffic is directed by the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron of the U.S. Air Force. ?What is unacceptable to us is the priorities,? Ms. Rodrigue said in an interview.

She and the group?s director of operations, Thierry Durand, called it ?shocking? and ?crazy? that planes with lifesaving equipment were diverted while, for instance, Edward G. Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, was able to land in a private plane in Port-au-Prince on a mission to help transport Haitian orphans to the United States.

?We are not playing favorites ? it couldn?t be further from the truth,? said Maj. Nathan Miller, an officer with the squadron in Haiti.

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/world/europe/23iht-doctors.html