Haiti/France - earthquake aid row

Paris plays down criticism of US aid handling

Article published on the 2010-01-17 Latest update 2010-01-17 14:40 TU

A US Air Force unloads at Port-au-Prince airport
(Photo: Reuters)

A top French official on Sunday welcomed the US co-ordination of aid to earthquake-hit Haiti in an attempt to calm a row over a French aid flight being turned back from Port-au-Prince airport

"It is really not the moment for the expresion of rivalry  between countries," commented the Secretary General to the french Presidency, Claude Guéant on Europe 1 radio on Sunday.

He hailed the US's "considerable effort" to help Haiti and welcomed the fact that Washington is co-ordinating the international aid operation.

On Saturday Co-operation Minister Alain Joyandet, who is representing the French government in Port-au-Prince, told the press that he had lodged an official protest with Washington after a French plane carrying a field hospital was refused permission to land at Port-au-Prince airport.

On Saturday evening the Foreign Affairs Ministry declared that no such protest had been made.

Former US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton joined Barack Obama in appealing for help for Haiti on Saturday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Port-au-Prince and called for logistical problems to be tackled.

Senegalese President Abdulaye Wade proposed what he called "a radical solution" for Haitians in an interview with France Info radio.

Bearing in mind the "recurrence of calamities" in Haiti and that they are the descendants of African slaves, they should be allowed to move to Africa, he suggested.

"They didn't choose to go to that island and it would not be the first time that former slaves or their descendants are brought back to Africa," he said, poiniting out that the state of Liberia was founded by former slaves from America.