Clinton apologises for slow Haiti aid effort

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 6, 2010: Former US president Bill Clinton pledged Friday to try to get aid flowing here as he was met by angry Haitians protesting the slow arrival of help since last month’s quake. Clinton said he was sorry that the aid efforts had been so slow, adding he also wanted to understand why more than three weeks after the January 12 quake supplies were still not getting through to desperate Haitians.“I’m sorry it’s taken this long,” Clinton said, adding he and other relief workers were working hard to ease the suffering.

“I’m trying to get to what the bottlenecks are, part of it is just shipping the volume of food in here that is necessary,” Clinton told reporters as he visited a clinic in the ruined capital of Port-au-Prince.But the former president rejected suggestions he had in effect become governor of this small Caribbean nation.

“What I don’t want to be is the governor of Haiti. I want to build the capacity of the country to chart its own course. They can trust me not to be a neocolonialist, I’m too old.”Clinton also visited the government’s de facto headquarters in a police building in the city, where about 200 people demonstrated outside to protest the lack of shelter.

“Our children are burning in the sun. We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter,” said Mentor Natacha, 30, a mother of two who gathered at one of the various points in the ravaged city that witnessed protests.A similar number gathered in front of the US embassy nearby.

Participants said they hoped to meet Clinton, who was designated Wednesday as coordinator of international aid for the impoverished Caribbean nation by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. -AFP