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UN chief in Haiti to support relief efforts
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-18 10:10
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Ban said he has three priorities in Haiti: saving as many lives as possible, stepping up humanitarian assistance and ensuring the coordination of the huge amount of aid coming into the country.
"We should not waste even a single item, a dollar," he said.
The secretary-general's first stop was at the collapsed UN mission headquarters in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where rescuers worked feverishly to rescue Danish civil affairs officer Jens Christensen from the rubble of the five-story building. Staffers accompanying Ban wiped away tears as they viewed the destruction and mourned their dead and missing colleagues.
About 15 minutes after Ban left, emergency workers successfully pulled Christensen from the building. He was soon talking and smiling as he was given water, and was taken to a hospital.
Informed of the rescue later, Ban called it "a small miracle and ... a great sign of hope."
The secretary-general's 5-hour trip ended on a heartbreaking note, however, with a military farewell to Haiti mission chief Hedi Annabi and his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, whose bodies were found Saturday in the ruins of the UN building. Scores of other UN personnel are missing, including more than 30 from the UN headquarters.
The caskets of Annabi and da Costa were draped with the UN's blue-and-white flag and carried onto Ban's awaiting jet by UN soldiers. Ban bowed before the caskets as the mournful Last Post was played and UN personnel clung to each other with tears in their eyes.
The Haiti earthquake, which has claimed as many as 100,000 victims, is "one of the most serious humanitarian crises in decades," Ban said. "The damage, destruction and loss of life are just overwhelming."
