UN: US-run airport in Haiti to give aid planes, not US military, priority landing rights

UN: Aid flights get top priority at Haiti airport

ROME — The U.N. food agency reached an agreement Monday with the U.S.-run airport in the Haitian capital to give aid flights priority in landing — a deal that came after the U.S. military was criticized for giving top billing to military and rescue aircraft.

At an emergency meeting in Brussels, meanwhile, the European Union’s 27 nations pledged more than €400 million ($575 million) to help quake survivors and rebuild the Caribbean nation after last week’s massive earthquake.

The United States has taken over the Port-au-Prince airspace and incoming flights have to register with the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

But an air slot system similar to one used during the Indonesian tsunami emergency and the Pakistan earthquake has been established to make sure that planes carrying food and medicine get priority in landing, World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran told reporters.

“Even though the slots are limited and the need is great, we now have the coordination mechanism to prioritize the humanitarian flights coming in,” Sheeran said.

Over the weekend, the aid group Doctors Without Borders complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck at the airport amid reports that U.S. military flights were getting priority. French, Brazilian and other officials complained about the airport’s refusal to let their aid planes land, forcing many flights to end up in the neighboring Dominican Republic, a day’s drive away.

On Monday, French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet urged the United Nations to investigate the dominant U.S. role in the relief operation, claiming that international aid efforts were supposed to be about helping Haiti, not “occupying” it.

Haitians have complained that food, medicine and water have been woefully slow in reaching them. Sheeran, however, said the WFP aid pipeline is on track compared to previous natural disasters in terms of aid distribution and insisted aid distribution was improving “hour by hour.”

The U.N. has estimated that 3 million Haitians — one-third of the country’s population — were affected by the Jan. 12 quake and 2 million require food assistance. WFP reported that 67,000 people in Haiti received food Sunday and 97,000 were expected to get ready-to-eat meals on Monday.

Still, Italian civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso said there was little coordination in the relief effort and the international community needs “strong leadership” to channel aid where it is most needed.

“We are still lacking someone who will give orders and tell each country what it must do,” he said in Brussels while attending an emergency EU meeting on Haiti.

At that meeting, the European Union Commission said it would contribute €330 million ($474 million) in urgent and long-term aid while EU member states poured €92 million ($132 million) in emergency aid alone.

Sheeran said the agency had 16 million ready-to-eat meals in the pipeline, as well as 4.2 million supplementary meals for children, but appealed for government donations for more, saying the U.N. would need more than 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days.

In addition, Sheeran said the U.N. food agency was setting up five separate humanitarian corridors to bring food into Port-au-Prince via land and other means, due to airport limitations.

She said the key priorities over the coming days were to clear roads, ensure security at the U.N.’s food distribution hubs, get Port-au-Prince’s port working again, and to bring in heavy equipment like helicopters and trucks.

To that end, a newly commissioned Italian aircraft carrier, carrying medical facilities, six helicopters, engineers, doctors and construction vehicles, will leave for Haiti on Tuesday. The Cavour will stop in Brazil to take on additional medical personnel.

The outpouring of sympathy for one of the poorest countries in the world was not just limited to governments.

In Italy, an adoption commission was flooded with calls asking about giving orphaned Haitian children a new home. The Netherlands speeded up existing adoption cases and sent a chartered plane Monday to pick up 109 children who had already matched with families.

In Sweden, one businessman donated 100 million kronor ($14.1 million) to help a child charity with its work in Haiti.

In the world of sports, Ukrainian heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko planned to show his softer side during Tuesday’s ZDF fundraising show in Germany, while the English football (soccer) club West Bromwich Albion had special “Haiti appeal” logos made for its shirts.

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Casert reported from Brussels. AP reporters Ariel David in Rome and Angela Charlton in Paris also contributed to this report.