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Hopeless homeless? Desperation mounting on the air

By Chen Weihua and Huo Yongzhe (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-21 18:09

Port au Prince: Despite few goods news of survivors found after over 100 hours' entrenchment under the rubbles, thousands of temblor victims are loosing the hope for amply aid and fleeing away from the shattered capital.

"That is my three-storey house, it clasped totally," cried Bien-Alme Pascal, taking out his mobile phone and showing a picture in which debris piles up.

Six members of his family all died when the magnitude 7.0 temblor hit the poorest nation in west hemisphere nine days ago.

"When we call the government (for help), the government is mute," Pascal lashed out, with figures pointing to his ear.

Special Coverage:
Major Earthquake Hits Haiti

"We come to US people, they said they can only be there in two days,'' said Pascal, adding victim bodies are not pulled out from the rubbles until today.

Sluggish efforts have been taken to aid the devastated capital and insufficient and inefficient supply of daily necessities such as food and drinkable water have turned the city into an epicenter of despair.

"I want to move, move to other places where we can find food," said Pascal, without mentioning any preferable finalized destinations.

Thousands of Haiti's quake victims are struggling to board into rickety wooden buses and open trucks to flee hunger and violence in the shattered capital, which made the bumpy roads to countryside boarder region in serious traffic jam.

Security could be another reason entangles many Haitians from staying in their homeland with confidence and hope. Looters were rampaging through part of downtown Port-au-Prince even as the Security Council voted to add 2,000 troops to the 7,000 military peacekeepers already in the country.

Police Chief Mario Andersol said earlier to western media that he can muster only 2,000 officers in the capital, down from 4,500 before the quake, and they "are not trained to deal with this kind of situation."

Outbursts of violence have slowed distribution of supplies, leaving many troubled Haitians still without help a week after the magnitude-7.0 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people.

International aid is not seen in mostly hit downtown area, with exception of few Red Cross tents established in some regions, according to Silvester Stok, a camera man with Television Slovania and in the port city for five days.

"People become angry, I do not know why they do not deliver food and water (to the victims), they have everything at the airport," said Stok, who travels everyday from downtown to the airport to gather information for disaster relief.

Linda Pascal, Bien-Alme's elder sister, lost her daughter and two of her grandchildren when the quake hit the country.

"My Palace (government) never guarantees anything to us, without any aid, any food, nothing," said Linda Pascal.

"I am tired, I am tired of death." said the 56-year-old sister.

And some of the refugees fled in fear of big aftershock and epidemic hit again as a strong earthquake hit on early Wednesday Morning, shaking buildings and sending people running into the streets.