Refugees try to flee Port-au-Prince as security situation in Haiti deteriorates

Image by U.S. Coast Guard via Flickr

By William Booth, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 18, 2010; 1:05 PM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The number of refugees fleeing the Haitian capital surged Monday, as thousands fought to get on buses leaving for the countryside. Prices for tickets doubled as the buses jostled in long lines at gas stations.

The city's gas stations have fuel, but station owners refused to open because there was no security. At the United Nations compound by the airport, hundreds of trucks and soldiers from the international peacekeeping force sat idle.

Rumors circulated that the Haitian government was providing free transportation to anyone who wanted to leave Port-au-Prince and go to the provinces, but reporters driving around the city could find no free rides.

Instead, a trip to Les Cayes that would have cost $5 now costs $10, and many families were stranded with luggage beside the buses, without the money to pay for the journey of more than 100 miles.

"The numbers are growing every day for people who want to leave," said Michel Pierre Andre, a bus driver who makes the run to Jeremie, about 140 miles away. His bus was crammed to the roof with passengers but the driver had no gas. Drivers and passengers were screaming at the gas station manager to start pumping some fuel, but he refused.

"I go to Jeremie with a full load but I come back empty. Nobody wants to come to Port-au-Prince. There is nothing here. No food to buy. No work. No nothing," Pierre Andre said.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

In the capital center, at the sprawling tent cities by the destroyed National Palace, residents said they have not seen a single international aid group distribute food in five days. "I have been here every day. I heard they gave away some food but there was a riot. If you tell me they have been giving out food I will believe you, but we have been on this spot since the day of the earthquake and we have not seen anyone give away anything but water," said Jean Marie Magarette, who was camping with her mother, sister and four children.

Desperate Haitians continue to struggle to find food and water while guarding their meager possessions against the advance of looters as the United States and other nations struggled to jump-start a sluggish relief effort.

Even as Navy and Coast Guard ships arrived offshore, a round-the-clock airlift intensified and additional dignitaries appeared, the frantic victims of Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake were growing more fearful as they pleaded for help and security in a lawless city.

With massive amounts of aid promised but not yet delivered because of the difficulty of operating in the crippled country, amid what U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called "one of the most serious crises in decades," the living banded together outdoors without shelter, sustenance or protection.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

There was widespread apprehension that, unless the pace of aid distribution quickens, there could be mass violence as hundreds of thousands of people suddenly lacking food, water and electricity begin to compete for scarce resources.

"We worry," said Laurence Acluche, a Haitian National Police officer. "We are all concerned about food."

There has already been scattered looting in recent days, but so far it has been primarily confined to damaged buildings. Still, Haiti has long lacked a robust security presence, and the earthquake has further eroded what little there had been, meaning violence could quickly escalate once it starts.

On Sunday, many merchants were afraid to open their stores for fear that they would be overrun by hungry, desperate quake victims. Even pharmacies remained shuttered.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

"We need the Haitian forces to protect us," said Cledanor Sully, owner of a small Port-au-Prince hotel called the Seven Stars. Sully sleeps in a park across the street from his damaged -- but still standing -- hotel, fearful that looters will make off with mattresses and dressers. "We're all scared. We need the United Nations and we need the United States Marines."

Indeed, all over Port-au-Prince, signs begging for help from the Marines have been sprouting. In front of one crushed office building, a typical sign read: "Welcome the U.S. Marine. We need some help. Dead bodies inside." Another read: "U.S. Marines SOS. We need help."

At this point, though, it's unlikely that there will be a dramatic expansion of the U.S. military presence in Port-au-Prince. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this weekend that there will be up to 10,000 U.S. forces in Haiti and off its coast by Monday, but only a fraction of them will be on the ground.

"The bulk of them will be on ships," he said.

The troops that have been deployed to Haiti have been slow in arriving. Military officials blame delays in getting troops to Port-au-Prince in part on the city's small, overburdened airport. "It's a huge traffic issue," said Capt. John Kirby, spokesman for the military joint task force. He also said the task force's commander wants to ensure that flights with soldiers are not preempting the arrival of aid supplies.

"We're not the only country flying in here," Kirby said.

After the French group Doctors Without Borders issued a public call that its planes be allowed to land to treat the wounded, its hospital plane received clearance at about 3 p.m. Sunday. An Air Force official said the U.S. military turned away only three of the 67 civilian flights trying to arrive Saturday.

But the dearth of security forces on the ground in Port-au-Prince is actually delaying the provision of food and medical aid, some aid workers say. For instance, the Colombian Red Cross has a mobile clinic on the ground, but it can't set it up until security is arranged.

"We're negotiating with" the U.N., a Colombian government official said.

The UN Security Council on Monday endorsed a proposal by Secretary General Ban to send 3,500 peacekeepers -- 2,500 troops and 1,000 police -- to help maintain order to secure humanitarian relief operations. The Security Council is expected to hold a formal vote on that proposal Tuesday morning. The U.S. has also drafted a resolution that would authorize an expansion of the more than 9,000 strong peacekeeping force to more than 12,500 troops.

A senior U.S. official here said the U.S. would consider any requests for contributions, but underscored the fact that there was already has a substantial American military presence in Haiti. The draft resolution expresses "deepest sympathy and solidarity" with those affected by the Jan 12 earthquake. It "endorse the recommendation by the Secretary General to increase the overall force levels of MINUSTAH to support the immediate recovery and stability efforts."

The U.S. 18th Airborne has already set up a headquarters at the airport, and the 82nd Airborne was establishing small posts around the city to protect food and water drops. The 82nd Airborne had 500 troops here as of Sunday night, and 750 more were expected Monday.

But there was almost no Haitian law enforcement presence on the streets of Port-au-Prince on Sunday. For years, blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeping forces have patrolled with city in armored personnel carriers and trucks. But the U.N. force is deeply unpopular, and its ability to respond to the crisis has been hampered by leadership problems. The force's acting commissioner died during the earthquake, and his replacement did not arrive for several days.

"The blue helmets, they don't do anything," said Gregoire Sancerre, a computer technology student, echoing a frequent refrain here. "If you have trouble and call them, they won't come. They are afraid of gangsters. What use are they?"

Haiti's small national police force suffered losses when a police station and prison collapsed during the quake, killing at least eight officers and eight inmates. Dozens of police uniforms were destroyed in the collapse, adding to the general sense of confusion in the streets because there are not enough uniforms for surviving officers.

The loss of the prison, in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, leaves police with fewer options to detain suspected criminals.

Even under normal circumstances, the national police are sorely outmatched. Port-au-Prince has long been plagued by violent gangs that control huge swaths of the city, including much of the notorious Cite Soleil slum.

The signs of growing strain were evident Sunday as U.N. police in riot gear pushed back crowds of Haitians massing around one of the main gates to Port-au-Prince's airport. Residents know that food supplies are being warehoused at the airport, and some have gone there, hoping for provisions -- even though no food is being distributed at the airport.

David Orr, a spokesman for the World Food Program, said his group expected to distribute high-energy biscuits to 67,000 people on Sunday after passing out 40,000 on Saturday, 25,000 on Friday and 10,000 on Thursday. Despite the increased distribution, the food situation is so dire that residents were picking through a trash bin in Port-au-Prince. Local suppliers have been sharply raising their prices, sometimes doubling the cost of items such as juice, water and rice.

Seven field hospitals have been set up in Port-au-Prince by international organizations, and three more were supposed to open Sunday, said Nicholas Reader, a spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian relief effort.

Port-au-Prince's overwhelmed city hospitals were dealing with a new problem on Sunday: patients who had been treated and were well enough to be released but were refusing to leave.

"They have nowhere to go," Reader said. "Their homes have been destroyed. So they are staying. So the hospitals are literally overflowing with people."

Ban, the U.N. secretary general, made his first visit to Haiti since the earthquake and spoke briefly and emotionally to U.N. staff members coping with their own losses from the collapse of their headquarters. Patrick Hein, an injured U.N. staffer whose wife is still missing, pressed Ban "to take care of my wife." Later, in an interview, Hein criticized the organization for not doing more to find his wife and others in the rubble of a collapsed U.N. building.