22341: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Flood Aid (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 11 (AP) -- With thousands of flood victims in Haiti
awaiting food and drinking water, aid agencies said they are struggling to
reach isolated villages and urged U.S.-led peacekeepers to keep offering
helicopters for relief shipments.
   More than a week after troops stopped ferrying shipments by helicopter,
the forces made an exception Thursday, dispatching a U.S. Army Chinook on
three trips to the hard-hit southern town of Mapou with more than 16 tons
of food and water, officials said.
   "The decision of the multinational forces to suspend flights to Mapou
posed a big problem to relief agencies, especially the World Food Program,"
said Max Bonnel of a U.N. disaster assessment team.
   Thursday's shipment of aid from the World Food Program should be enough
for 740 families for a week, WFP spokeswoman Anne Poulsen said.
   By all accounts, thousands more need aid in an area where roads were
destroyed by landslides.
   After the deadly floods two and a half weeks ago, U.S. and Canadian
troops made regular helicopter trips, but declared the emergency period
over last week and said they had to conserve helicopter hours.
   The forces also were convinced aid agencies had other means of
transport, said U.S. Marine Lt. Col. David Lapan. The U.S.-led force, which
arrived after the Feb. 29 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is to
hand over command this month to a U.N. force.
   With help from the British and U.S. governments, the United Nations
ordered a rented cargo helicopter from Venezuela, but several days later it
still hadn't arrived -- prompting the U.S. troops to help Thursday.
   The World Food Program has rented only one light helicopter so far, and
it isn't capable of carrying heavy loads so it's being used to assess
damage, Poulsen said.
   Lapan said Thursday's flights were an exception and did not mark a
resumption of regular military flights. The U.S.-led force says it also
needs helicopters for patrols and transporting troops.
   The London-based charity Oxfam is urging the United Nations to help
provide helicopters. It says aid agencies are unable to reach tens of
thousands of people in desperate need.
   "To move within the affected area, you have to move by helicopter," said
Fernanda Castejon, an Oxfam official from Guatemala. Without them, aid
groups are reaching remote areas by boat, horse, foot, and occasionally
truck on remaining sections of road.
   The floods left more than 3,300 people dead or missing in Haiti and the
neighboring Dominican Republic. In Mapou, aid workers say receding waters
still partly cover houses and bodies are still being found.