US ambassador says Washington worried about law and order in Haiti, calls situation manageable

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US ambassador: Haitian restlessness manageable

WASHINGTON — The U.S. ambassador to Haiti said Monday that American officials are concerned about security in earthquake-stricken Haiti but consider the situation manageable.

“The security situation is obviously not perfect,” Kenneth Merten said in a nationally broadcast interview, when asked about the potential violence among people desperate for food, water and shelter.

“The Haitian police, due to their own significant losses, are degraded,” he said. “The U.N. has had losses.” But Merten also said he believes “things are going reasonably well. This is not a perfect law and order situation here even in the best of times. We’re concerned about it and we’re monitoring it closely, but I don’t think it’s anything that’s unmanageable.”

Merten called the U.S. military presence in and around the island a backup option in the event of violence, saying first call would be the Haitian police force and the U.N. force in Haiti. He credited Brazilians in that force with making a strong contribution toward stability.

“Our troops are standing by in cases where neither the Haitian police nor the U.N. troops are providing security,” Merten said on NBC’s “Today” show. “In most cases, the Haitian police and the U.N. forces have been able to handle the situation.”

On Sunday, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen of the U.S. Southern Command, said that some incidents of violence have hindered rescue workers trying to help the earthquake victims. Providing humanitarian aid, he said, requires a safe and secure environment, and that while streets have been mostly calm, violence has been surging.

“We are going to have to address the situation of security,” Keen said. “We’ve had incidents of violence that impede our ability to support the government of Haiti and answer the challenges that this country faces.”

Keen said about 1,000 U.S. troops are in Haiti and that 3,000 more are working from ships. More than 12,000 U.S. forces were expected to be in the region by Monday.

Fear of looters and robbers has been one of the factors slowing the delivery of aid. After Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake, maintaining law and order fell to the 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers and international police already in Haiti, even though those forces also sustained heavy losses in the disaster.

The White House said President Barack Obama issued an order allowing selected members of the military’s reserves to be called up to support operations in Haiti. Signed on Saturday, it permits the Defense Department and Homeland Security Department to tap reserve medical personnel and a Coast Guard unit that will help provide port security. More than 250 medical personnel from the Health and Human Services Department are already in Haiti.

Various authorities and organizations have estimated that the death toll from the earthquake could range roughly between 50,000 and 100,000. And in Monday’s interview, Merten was asked to say what the economic loss is expected to be.

“I haven’t heard anybody give a credible estimate,” he replied. “I don’t think at this point anybody who’s being honest with you is really going to know.”

He described downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital city, as resembling “Tokyo at the end of the Second World War.”