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A Haitian policeman stands with a baton after food distribution in a Port-au-Prince district turned chaotic and violent - Source: Reuters -
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UN troops fired tear gas at desperate Haitians crowding a food
handout outside the wrecked presidential palace as delays in
getting help to earthquake survivors persist two weeks after the
catastrophe.
The Brazilian UN peacekeepers used pepper spray to control a
frenzied crowd of thousands of Haitians seeking food at a makeshift
camp on the grounds of the palace.
"They're not violent, just desperate. They just want to eat,"
Brazilian Army Colonel Fernando Soares said.
"The problem is, there is not enough food for everyone."
The 7.0-magnitude quake killed up to 200,000 people and demolished
swaths of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other cities.
A huge US-led international relief operation is struggling to
feed, house and care for hundreds of thousands of hungry, homeless
survivors, many of them injured.
Facing persistent complaints by survivors that the huge amounts of
aid flown in to Haiti is not reaching them on the ground, US
troops, UN peacekeepers and aid workers have widened and
intensified the distribution of food and water.
Some of the food handouts in the capital have turned unruly.
At the presidential palace on Tuesday, UN troops with shotguns
handed out sacks of rice with American flags on them.
Armoured trucks formed a cordon to control the crowd and people
were searched as they entered the checkpoint.
"Yesterday they gave us rice, but there was not enough. There were
too many people," said Wola Levolise, 47, who is living in the camp
with her nine children.
The United States has dispatched more than 15,000 military
personnel to Haiti. About 4,700 are deployed on the ground with the
rest on ships off the coast.
The US military said it could scale back its involvement within
three to six months as other international organizations assume
larger roles providing security and disaster relief.
It does, however, plan to help build a 5,000-bed hospital to
provide longer-term care to quake victims.
Garbage service
There were signs the ruined capital was slowly returning to
life.
A city garbage truck hauled away piles of rubbish at a makeshift camp near St Peter's Church and a long line snaked outside a bank in the suburb of Petionville.
A street market along Rue Geffrard in Port-au-Prince was crowded
and chaotic.
As the relief operation for Haiti turns from rescue to recovery,
authorities are trying to relocate at least 400,000 survivors - now
sheltering in more than 400 sprawling makeshift camps across
Port-au-Prince - in temporary tent villages outside the wrecked
city.
Health Minister Alex Larsen said one million Haitians had been
displaced from their homes in the Port-au-Prince area.
The government had tents for 400,000 to be used in the new,
temporary settlements, but would need more.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive made an urgent appeal for an
additional 200,000 tents at an international donors conference in
Montreal, Canada.
Almost daily aftershocks have shaken Port-au-Prince since the
quake, raising the possibility the city might have to be rebuilt on
a safer location, away from geological fault lines.
"In 30 seconds, Haiti lost 60 percent of its GDP," Bellerive said
in Montreal, referring to the concentration of commerce and people
in the capital.
"So we must decentralize."
Bellerive thanked the world community for its help so far, but said
more and more and more was needed to rebuild a fragile Caribbean
state that even before the January 12 quake was the poorest in the
Western Hemisphere.
"What we're looking for is a long-term commitment ... At least five
to 10 years," he told the conference, which included the United
States, Canada, France and 10 other countries.
The group decided to hold an international pledging conference at
UN headquarters in New York in March.
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