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Sky News continues to report on the devastation caused by the earthquake which struck on Tuesday night.

For a full transcription of quotes from today’s coverage, please see below.

Dr Michael Williams, a lecturer in International Relations at Royal Holloway University of London talking about the help the US and UN are giving and future rebuilding plans for Haiti:

“At the end of the day whoever is closest and can provide the aid is probably best suited to do so in the short term and certainly with the United States there is proximity and also the ability of its military forces which due to the fact that they make a very large footprint wherever they travel have an excellent ability to project force and all the logistics accompanying so they are  normally used to setting up hospitals, bases, communications, satellite uplinks etc, so it really is only logical that the US would have stepped into the breach at the moment to help at least provide temporary cover.  In the longer term I am sure the United Nations will be managing the mission but having resources like the USS Carl Vincent which can produce 400,000 gallons of drinkable water a day is certainly a step in the right direction so really is perhaps not the time to squabble.  Post conflict peace building is always complicated.”

“Given the bungled interventions that have occurred in Haiti in the past and their relationship with the United States, there is going to be concern on the ground as well, it’s not been mentioned very much, in terms of the security situation and looting.  There has also been talk of some aid shipments that have been attacked and if you think back to Somalia, that’s what happened there, where aid shipments were being attacked by warlords, which was much more of an endemic problem but any sort of insecurity isn’t going to help instil faith.  People will automatically start saying we are here to help and why are you attacking us, that will be the public sentiment, so of course there is reason to have broad political legitimacy and have the UN in place for the longer term operations.  Even though the US are committed, it won’t be able to maintain the sort of presence in the coming decades that Haiti will need to re-grow.”

“If you look at some of the information that is coming out from some of the various think tanks about where Haiti should go now, what you will see is there is an effort to say that not just the infrastructure needs to be rebuilt but also the government.  This provides an opportunity to put in place measures for the government to reform itself, throw out corruption, to provide better services.  The Haitians are very used to not getting much help from their government so they are not very surprised about the lack of support at the moment so really there is a chance to rebuild the country but also the political culture and try to edge it in a direction where it will be a more sustainable future for the entire country.”

John Denham, Communities Secretary, talks about the help given to Haiti by the British government and people as well as the rescue mission:  

“Well I want to praise the people that went out so quickly.  The earthquake was on Tuesday, 64 search and rescue specialists were on their way by daybreak on the Wednesday morning and we’ve seen in the newspapers in the  last day or two, that they have pulled two people alive from the rubble already.  It was an immediate and fantastic contribution by these specialists and it has of course now been backed up by the generosity of the British people and the support the government is giving.”

“As soon as they landed they were able to be directed to an area, Carrefour, of the city where they began their rescue work and clearly there  has been a major logistical problem because this is a country that had a weak government at the best of times, many of the people are dead, the infrastructure is destroyed so people internationally have had to work through the airport problems and the ports problems but I think people are doing everything they can do to do that and things will get better day by day.”

Ken Livingstone, former Labour MP and Mayor of London, talked about the history of Haiti:

“The slaves revolted 150 years ago, threw the French out but then the French organised basically an economic blockade for 100 years to make them pay off the cost of the lost slaves and they finished paying off in about 1947 and so all their wealth has basically gone in to paying off this debt to France and then the Americans took it over because they borrowed money from banks.  They have never been free.  They threw off the slave owners but they have effectively been in haul to the bankers, a bit like we are these days.”

Andy Kershaw, the broadcaster who has visited Haiti many times talking about his views on the country and the people and what they can do going forward in the future:

“It has been a broken and chaotic country for a long time but ironically for the last couple of years, the economy had been growing, the problems they had been having with the gangs in Port-au-Prince, because of the UN presence, had been improving a lot.  The economy was actually really on the upturn so in that sense it couldn’t have come at a worse time but it is a broken and chaotic country and I have often felt when I have been there, it shouldn’t work, nobody knows how it works but somehow or other it does.  The flip side of that is because the Haitians are so accustomed to enduring poverty and one disaster after another, they are probably personally better equipped to cope with this than if this earthquake had happened anywhere else in the world.”

“The first message I got from there was that all the electricity was off and there was a lot of screaming in the night and I sent a message back saying just another normal night in Haiti then.  That is a rather flippant thing for me to say and it is more chaotic than usual and what has happened is terrible, but these people are probably better equipped to cope with this than others.  It is in their national character to work hard, there is a culture of industriousness and fortitude and resourcefulness.  This is the world’s first black republic and they are very proud of that.  They overthrew the French in a slave rebellion and become independent in 1804. Standing by themselves is something they are very used to and they will cope.”

“Aristide was overthrown twice some would say by CIA manipulated coups but you can’t blame the Americans for all of Haiti’s woes but yes, it is scandalous that Haiti has been allowed to exist like this for so long in poverty so close to the richest country on earth and some would argue it has been the policy of the United States to keep Haiti in that state.  We are talking about a country that didn’t even give its own black people the vote until 1965, so they didn’t really want these uppity blacks in Haiti setting a bad example to the United States but they can’t be blamed entirely.  I think this is an opportunity for Obama, and I don’t think Obama is this cynical, I think he is genuinely concerned and decent man, but it does present him with an opportunity to do a very eye catching foreign policy and PR success and take everyone’s eye off the fiasco in Afghanistan and Lord knows, he needs a foreign policy success.”

“Haiti is the most exhilarating and the most exasperating country at the same time but there are is some quality about the Haitians that is genuinely uplifting and they will get through this.  Most people are concentrating on the problem of distributing aid and there is a lot of self important nancying around going on among the US military and the aid agencies, 10,000 aid agencies working in Haiti, which to some extent absolve a weak central government from responsibilities towards their own people.  All this agonising about how best to distribute aid and the security issues – they’ll have a security issue on their hands of unprecedented scale unless they get food and crucially water to the people.  The best mechanism for the distribution of those resources are the Haitian people themselves.  The Haitians are very, very efficient and they will distribute these things if they are given them.”

“It sounds almost cruel but this is an opportunity for Haiti because it has drawn world attention to it, because people have seen for the first time what a broken place this is, perhaps at long last Haiti will get the fundamental restructuring that it has needed for so long.  So many have died in this earthquake because people literally live on top of each other in shoddily built dwellings that all collapsed.”

William Hague, Shadow Foreign Secretary, spoke about the problems facing Haiti in the immediate days and in the future:

“I think really everybody involved is doing everything they can.  I don't want to make any criticism at this point of anybody involved because clearly the teams that have been sent are doing their utmost.  It is very harrowing, it’s very frustrating that there are so many logistical bottlenecks, that the capacity of the airport there restricts the flow of aid into the country and I hope that will improve now that the United States has clearly taken charge of the airport and managed the air traffic going in and out but it is very frustrating I think for everybody across the world trying to help so I hope people will continue to give to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal and I very much pay tribute to the teams that have been sent over there and are doing their best.”

“This is a country with enormous problems, right back to the 1790s and so these are not easily solved.  Clearly it is under any circumstances one of the very strong candidates for a strong flow of development aid but then that also has to be properly managed and wisely spent by the government concerned.  So we should look at all that again in the future but the immediate priority of course is to get the maximum amount of help, of emergency help to the people involved.  All the evidence is that what you can do in the first few days after a disaster like this makes a dramatic difference compared to what you can do weeks later.”

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, talked about the UN co-ordination of the relief efforts:

“The United Nations is in charge of the co-ordination of all the relief efforts and also of the search and rescue operation.  As of today, those search and rescue workers have saved more than 70 alive from the rubble. There are 43 international search and rescue teams right now working around the clock together with 151 dogs, equalling 1739 rescue workers.  This is the biggest rescue operation ever for international rescue teams.”

“It is a huge operation, it is one of the biggest operations we have had to deal with and it is a serious challenge at this stage to bring all the relief supplies into Haiti given that we have very huge logistical constraints.  The airport is open but with very limited capacity, the port is not operational, the cranes are destroyed, there is a lack of fuel and it is seriously hampering our efforts but despite those challenges and bad conditions, today 250 tonnes of humanitarian aid arrived in Port-au-Prince and the distribution is ongoing.”

“Everybody is on board, everybody is working together to save the lives and to deliver aid as soon as possible. We have a main operational centre close to the airport together with the American people, together with the European Union, together also we liaise with the emergency centre of the government.  The government have lost so many civil servants, there is not an administrative building standing and they are really addressing the issue of the fuel, they are trying to evacuate people from Port-au-Prince to be treated as well, they are doing their best. We all work together, there is no problem.”

“We have the port of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic which we can use and we can also use some other places in Haiti, some ports which are still operational.  We also have open humanitarian corridor between Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic and the road is being secured by the peace keeping forces.  The Americans have logistic and military assets that we need, we have a dedicated civil military co-ordination by the UN to use the best way these huge logistic means they have and we are looking to see them fully on board.”

Airlie Taylor, an emergency specialist with Action Aid, talks about the local team they have working in Haiti:

“We have a local team who have been working in Haiti since 1997 who know the communities that we work with very well and obviously the scale of this disaster has overwhelming the international aid community so at Action Aid we have brought in staff from nearby countries, from Brazil and Guatemala, who have travelled through the Dominican Republic over land and they are bolstering capacity and  helping us.  The fact that we know the local communities, which individuals are most vulnerable and that is helping channel aid to where it is needed most.  There is a huge logistical challenge to get aid from the airport to people who need it but we know that agencies, especially those that come under the DEC appeal here in the UK, are active on the ground and getting supplies through to people today.”

“There are several real constraints, for example the airport only has one runway but the US has taken control of the air space and up to 90 humanitarian flights are arrived every day.  Again unloading that number of flights is an issue and then roads are blocked or damaged and another issue is security, so ensuring our staff can deliver aid safely.  There have been some incidents of looting but these have been sporadic and isolated incidents.”

“The search and rescue phase is still underway with 27 teams on the ground at the moment so they are continuing that phase of the operation but emergency heavy lifting equipment is in the large part absent.  The scale of the damage is almost unprecedented with up to a third of the population of the entire country being affected so it is a huge almost overwhelming situation but we know that aid is getting through.”

Reverend Marcus Torchon, from the Wirral, has discovered his relatives in Port-au-Prince are safe and well:

“It has been very difficult to move along not being able to know what was going on and I thank God for the international community, for people who have been around us and who have managed to make sure that the telephone networks in Haiti are working.  I am looking forward to seeing or hearing better things on the ground.  My two sisters are alive and well, doing quite okay, they are participating in the relief and rescue programme and part of a much bigger team trying to see if other Haitians who are still trapped and the welfare of senior people and children, and I am happy they are able to do that.” 

“They have said that on the ground some supermarkets are beginning to open and there is a sense of community spirit in the sense of co-operation between the Haitian community and the international community.  In some corners there has been some level of resistance or even confrontation but this is just for a while, by and large the Haitian community is co-operating well, that’s what they have picked up on the ground.”

“We are quite happy and I am using this opportunity to say thank you to the international community. What is happening right now is the extent to which we can demonstrate that evil cannot conquer this world but that goodness and love is above all.  So whilst on the one hand we are seeing the ugliness of this tragedy on the other hand we are seeing the extent to which the international community is pouring itself out into the Haitian situation out of love. It is not out of willpower, we have been constrained by love to go there and do what I see happening so far and I am praying that God might bless the efforts.”

Andrew Hogg, from Christian Aid in London, talking about the physical and emotional problems for aid workers operating in Haiti:

“One of the key elements about this catastrophe is that the government is very weak. In other disasters you would have expected any UN presence on the ground to step in to orchestrate what takes place but the UN itself was hugely badly hit by the quake, it lost dozens of members of its own staff so the question of co-ordination is absolutely crucial.  Christian Aid welcomes the arrival of the US military and very much hope they are joined by the military from other neighbouring states because it requires the resources and facilities they have at their disposal to really get this aid operation underway.  We work with a number of other faith based organisations in something called Action by Churches Together and even trying to co-ordinate what we’re doing with our colleagues in that particular coalition isn’t that easy.  It is difficult to communicate from one part of Port-au-Prince to another in certain aspects and as far as the situation outside there is concerned, it is very early days.  Clearly the damage in other parts has been absolutely catastrophic but fuel is at a premium so moving around is not that easy.”

“The Christian Aid offices were completely destroyed in the quake and our country manager and a programme officer were lucky to escape with their lives, the latter being buried under rubble for several hours.  The country manager now has around 18 people living in his yard and he is now desperately trying to find food for his own family and to feed those living with them.  My colleague is sleeping in the back of a car as it is too dangerous to go back into her building due to fear of aftershocks and that is just the physical conditions. The mental scars this will leave is quite dreadful with many aid workers in Haiti having lost members of their own families so while the relief effort has to be embarked upon with absolute determination, these people are still mourning the loss of their loved ones so it is an extremely difficult situation.”


Sky News and www.skynews.com will continue to bring viewers and users the latest updates, with reports from Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay and Sky Correspondent Robert Nisbet on the ground in Haiti.

__________


Any quotes used MUST be credited to Sky News

Issued by:
Stella Tooth
07802 754877
Francoise Frost
07824 834825
Sky News Publicity

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