By Brad Norington
HAITI’S President is asking for a $US14 billion ($15.3bn) aid package to turn the rubble of Port-au-Prince into a thriving modern city after January’s earthquake.
President Rene Preval unveiled details after meeting President Barack Obama at the White House yesterday.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning. Let me begin by saying how honored we are to have President Preval here at the State Department. Everyone knows how devastated Haiti was by the earthquake of January the 12th. The Haitian people suffered so greatly and the Haitian Government was severely damaged. President Preval, Prime Minister Bellerive, the members of the cabinet, and the presidential staff, along with the people of Haiti themselves, have worked very hard these last two months to recover.
The United States and the international community mounted the largest ever rescue and relief effort. Progress has been made, but not nearly enough, and therefore, we are holding these meetings with President Preval today and tomorrow and the next day to discuss in depth what we need to do still to alleviate suffering and what we will do together to help build back Haiti better. The United States alone in this first phase has supplied nearly $700 million in assistance. Nearly one half of all households in America have contributed something to private relief efforts.
Haitian President Rene Preval (L) and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Haitian President Rene Preval Tuesday in calling for new elections in quake-hit Haiti as soon as possible.
Legislative polls, originally set for February and March, were postponed after the January 12 earthquake that demolished the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more than 220,000 people and leaving one million Haitians homeless.
At their meeting on Wednesday, Haitian President Rene Preval is expected to ask President Barack Obama to stop food aid to Haiti, Reuters reports. “Preval told a news conference on Monday the aid could in the long term hurt the economy of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. ‘I will tell him (Obama) that this first phase of assistance is finished,’ said Preval,” according to the news service.
“If they continue to send us aid from abroad – water and food – it will be in competition with the national Haitian production and Haitian commerce,” he said, adding that job creation should be the priority (Bigg, 3/8).
ByRory Carroll
Earthquake survivors fear mass pullout of troops is a sign of dwindling international support
US army soldiers load their duffels prior to their departure from Haiti at the international airport in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: Andres Leighton/AP
Thousands of US troops are leaving Haiti in a swift scaling back of US military involvement in post-earthquake security and reconstruction.
A gradual reduction from a peak of 20,000 in early February has accelerated in recent days and by the end of this week fewer than 8,000 are expected to remain in Haiti and on offshore vessels.
By Harold Emert In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and Bill Hutchinson In New York
Naomi Campbell wants to see first hand where money from her own humanitarian group, Fashion for Relief, is being invested in the Haiti relief efforts.
The caustic covergirl, coming off a Manhattan meltdown that left her chauffeur battered and her bad reputation bolstered, is planning a humanitarian mission to the quake-ravaged Caribbean nation.
“I am not a humanitarian leader, but someone who wishes to improve the world in which we live,” Campbell told the Brazilian newspaper O Dia.
AFP-Haitian President Rene Preval will get a sympathetic hearing when he meets with US counterpart Barack Obama on Wednesday, ahead of an international donors’ conference for his quake-hit nation.
What he is looking for, though, is billions of dollars to rebuild the poorest country in the Americas, which lost 222,000 people, 70 percent of its capital Port-au-Prince and more than half its economy in the January 12 catastrophe.
Thursday, Mar 11
Currently: ˚C
Feels Like: ˚ C
Hi: N/A˚, Lo: 24˚
Wind: , Gust: MPH
Wind Direction: () 
Powered By Weather.com
Follow MyAyiti.com