Reply #208: The French Cooperation Minister issued the same criticism today

[Peace Patriot]

France seeks clarification of US role in Haiti

Source: Associated Press

France seeks clarification of US role in Haiti
AP Last updated 11:13 19/01/2010

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

US 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. "This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti," Joyandet, in Brussels for an EU meeting on Haiti, said on French radio.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4230787

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Brazil, France, Venezuela--something's going on with this. There was another complaint today about the US military giving priority to landing US soldiers and delaying aid landings.

You will see a lot of idiots below, telling Chavez to "shut up" and worse. But here a French foreign minister is saying exactly the same thing. And Brazil, which commands about 9,000 UN peacekeepers from 17 countries in Haiti, has issued a similar criticism.

I hope this will turn out to be a multinational cooperative effort--and obviously in many ways it already is. This is especially important for the long term, because Haiti's major city is in utter ruins, the human devastation is massive, and it's going to take a long time and a lot of effort by a lot of people and countries just to stabilize the country. It DOES need to be "occupied" for a while as Haitians get back on their feet. This was a devastating blow. But yet another U.S. military occupation? That is not at all a good idea in any way. It needs to be multinational and somebody in the US government had better say that really soon.

I've held off criticism, because the situation is so dire, but with three countries saying the same thing, clearly there is a problem.