Haiti earthquake - Ban Ki-moon visit

UN chief tours capital, vows to speed up aid relief

Article published on the 2010-01-18 Latest update 2010-01-18 10:47 TU

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon inspects the site of the former headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Port-au-Prince on Sunday
(Photo: Reuters)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has vowed to speed up aid efforts to help stricken Haitians as he toured the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, before flying home bearing the UN's dead.

The Haitian government says it has buried some 70,000 bodies in mass graves after Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake, and has declaring a state of emergency until the end of the month.

"I am here to say we are with you. You are not alone. This is a tsunami-like disaster," Ban told a press conference Sunday after flying over the ruined city in a helicopter.

The UN chief met with President Rene Preval and was reunited in Port-au-Prince with Michele Montas, a Haitian who until late last year was his spokeswoman.

Ban flew back to New York bearing the bodies of some of the 40 UN staffers killed when the UN mission in Port-au-Prince collapsed in the quake, in what has become the global body's worst tragedy ever.

Some 330 UN workers are still missing in the rubble of the UN mission. But in what Ban called "a small miracle" a Danish UN worker was pulled from the ruins just after the UN chief had toured the site.

Jen Kristensen was pulled out of the remains of the UN's six story headquarters, where the walls have become a sarcophagus for so many, without a scratch on him.

Ban said the three top priorities were: to save as many people as possible, to bring emergency humanitarian aid in the form of water, food and medication, and to coordinate the massive aid effort.

The UN has noted that at least local government structures remained after the 2004 tsunami hit Indonesia's Aceh province, but in the Haiti town of Leogane, for example, all public services were lost in the earthquake.

Food rations provided by the United Nations and humanitarian organizations reached Challe, a camp for 10,000 displaced Haitian people outside the capital, for the first time Sunday as relief supplies began to trickle in to those in need.

Ban's fact-finding mission was aimed at assessing the Caribbean nation's needs and attempting to boost the shattered morale of the Brazilian-led United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH.

The United Nations on Friday appealed for 562 million dollars from the world community to help three million quake victims in the western hemisphere's poorest country for the next six months.