Haiti Has a Leader in Charge, But Not in Control - Giles Whittell, Martin Fletcher and Jacqui Goddard, The Times.

Haiti Has a Leader in Charge, But Not in Control - Giles Whittell, Martin Fletcher and Jacqui Goddard, The Times.

Tucked between Port-au-Prince airport and the giant UN compound is a one-storey building with no security or reliable communications and only two small suites of grubby offices. Before the earthquake hit, this was the headquarters of Haiti’s judicial police. It is now the seat of the Haitian Government and the office of President Préval, but it is seldom occupied, has no reception staff and people peer through the windows. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, insisted yesterday that Mr Préval remained in full charge of both Haiti and the aid effort that is still failing to reach those who need it most. Mr Préval himself declares that he is in charge of events and the UN says that it directs rescue teams and distributes aid according to information received from his administration. That administration’s ministerial buildings collapsed a week ago. Critics, and friends, of Haiti point out that it lacked a functioning government even before the earthquake. They are right in the most literal sense now. Six days after disaster struck, the operation to rescue Haiti descended into blame and finger-pointing yesterday as only a trickle of food, water and medical assistance reached hundreds of thousands of victims. Aid agencies and donor countries accused the US military of giving its own aircraft priority. Outside the airport, aid and rescue workers protested that nobody seemed to be in charge as looting and lawlessness rose sharply on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6993152.ece