Haitians Hold Day of Mourning One Month After Earthquake
Tens of thousands of Haitians gathered in Port-au-Prince last week for a national day of mourning held one month after the devastating earthquake killed at least 200,000 and left over a million people homeless. Haitian President René Préval asked Haitians to “dry their eyes” and rebuild their shattered country.

René Préval: “Some pain can’t be described in words. The only answer for all of that pain has been to look for some help, until now. Above all, outside. The pain is so heavy. Today we, the Haitian people, have to mourn our dead with dignity.”

During a trip to Haiti, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said the two top priorities for Haiti are now shelter and sanitation.

John Holmes: “Sanitation is a huge issue, complicated, as is shelter, by the number of sites that are there, the fluctuating populations in those sites, the need to move people from one site to another, in some cases, because where they are is not going to be sustainable in the rainy season. But this is a major challenge. We need to construct something like 25,000 latrines of one sort of another, whether they be dug latrines, trench latrines or portable latrines. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but that’s the issue. In fact, there, we’re still probably not more than five or ten percent of the way there, so there’s a huge challenge there, too.”


Study: Haiti Damage Could Top $13.2B
In Haiti, a new study says the damage from last month’s earthquake is worse than after the 2004 Asian tsunami. The Inter-American Development Bank says the damage could cost anywhere between $7.2 billion to $13.2 billion, compared to initial estimates of around $5 billion. Study co-author Andrew Powell said the earthquake could be the most destructive natural disaster in modern history.

Andrew Powell: “In relation to Haiti’s size, its population or its economic income, it’s really a terrible tragedy, one of the worst events that the world has seen for a country proportionate to the country’s size. And so, it’s really a devastating impact that the earthquake has had. We may well be talking of anything up to $13 or $14 billion of damages, and, of course, reconstruction needs is somewhat different to damages.”


Haitian President: It Will Take Three Years to Remove Rubble
Haitian President René Préval has estimated it will take three years to clear the rubble left by last month’s devastating earthquake. Préval told the Associated Press, “It will take 1,000 trucks moving rubble for 1,000 days, so that’s three years. And until we move out rubble, we cannot really build.” On Monday approximately 200 Haitians took to the streets of Port-au-Prince to protest the government’s response to the earthquake. Jean Enock Joseph called on the Haitian government, church and civil society to take responsibility for the care of the local population.

Jean Enock Joseph: “Two hundred and fifty thousand wounded Haitians is something extraordinary. We say, and we say again, that the state has to take responsibility, the church has to take responsibility, civil society has to take responsibility.”


Second Major Rainfall Since Quake Hits Haiti
Meanwhile in Haiti, fears of the coming rainy season were heightened Thursday when a heavy downpour hit Port-au-Prince. It was the second major rainstorm to hit Haiti since the earthquake struck. Thousands remain without any shelter, and tents provided to many displaced Haitians have been unable to withstand the rain.

Displaced Haitian Jean-Pierre Roge: “I’m staying on the ground, but the rain came all night. It’s causing trouble because I don’t have a tent. I don’t know what to do. We have one, two or three days until the rain comes, and I don’t know what to do. Everyone is in the same situation.”


UN Launches Record $1.4B Appeal for Haiti
The United Nations has launched a new appeal to meet its $1.4 billion goal for emergency aid to Haiti. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the UN is still $768 million short of meeting its needs for Haitian relief.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “The people of Haiti, so many lost their lives, their homes, their livelihoods. Their resilience, their patience, their solidarity, amid almost inconceivable hardship. To them, we say, once again, we are with you. We will help you to recover and rebuild.”
Former President Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, joined Ban to make the appeal one week after undergoing heart surgery.

President Bill Clinton: “The Haitians aspire to have you come to Haiti as tourists, not donors. They want to build a country that can stand on its own two feet, that can be modern and strong and which has the capacity to meet human needs. But in order to do that, we have to do this flash appeal, because now there are still too many Haitians living from day to day.”


UN Relief Coordinator “Disappointed” in Haiti Response
In Haiti, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official has criticized his agency’s relief operations in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake. According to the Washington Post, Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes wrote an email to his deputies saying he was “disappointed” in the failure to set up enough shelters, latrines and other services for Haitians displaced by the earthquake. The email reportedly warns of political unrest and mass demonstrations unless relief efforts are improved.


8 Missionaries Freed in Haiti, Return to US
Eight of the ten American missionaries jailed in Haiti have returned to the United States. On Wednesday, a Haitian judge cleared the missionaries of child kidnapping charges stemming from their arrest for trying to leave the country with a busload of children following last month’s earthquake. The judge cited testimony from the children’s parents that they had handed over their children voluntarily. Defense attorney Aviol Fleurant praised the decision.

Aviol Fleurant: “The judge has just decided to release eight of the ten American missionaries, because there is evidence they are all innocent. After hearing, questioning the parents of the kids, the ten parents that talked to the judge, that they gave the children voluntarily.”
Two of the missionaries remain behind bars. They are under investigation for allegations around their efforts to seek out Haitian children for adoption before the quake struck.

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