After two weeks in Haiti, many of the 550 rescuers from the Civil Security and the 108 policemen dispatched immediately after the earthquake have returned to France. They will be received Monday by the Prime Minister. Many, like the sergeant-Dubois, confessed having been confronted with scenes and emotions of uncommon violence. “It was like a war film,” recounts Colonel Franck Louvier which has issued from county firefighters Val-d’Oise, coordinated two weeks during the intervention of French physicians in four hospitals Port-au-Prince. Equally shocked, a policeman evokes “a performance comparable to that of cities destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.” Still others describe “a gigantic project in its area”, “terrible injuries”, a “nightmare” …

Committed to 7 am to 20 hours or more each day since their arrival, often inexperienced, some soldiers have sometimes struggled to hide their fatigue. Met January 15 at the foot of the ruins of the Hotel Montana, a master physician had waived such restrain her tears. There was fatigue, frustration and genuine sadness. In the morning, the officer had to admit his impotence. The young woman he had tried for eight hours to save the rubble had died. Yet he had tried everything, still kneeling under tons of concrete to general anesthesia. “Part of his body was crushed by debris,” he explained. She did not survive the extraction. ”

Expert-rescue excavation, Lieutenant Christopher Carrier, assigned to the intervention unit of Nogent-le-Rotrou tempers: “Sure, it’s difficult to spend several days to explore the ruins but could find survivors. Sometimes we even come to say we did not do the job … And then, fortunately, we found the energy to leave each morning and it finally paid off. “In total, the men of the French Civil Security extracted from the rubble 15 of the 134 survivors recovered from the earthquake. On January 28, fifteen days after the earthquake, they have saved such a young girl of 16 who was in a state of extreme dehydration. “At the moment, we were so focused on the need to go fast you did not quite woken up to this miracle,” says Lt. Carrier. Only after quarter of an hour I suddenly was gone chills … ”

A “huge cohesion

Responsible for the field hospital located in the gardens of the Embassy of France, where nearly 140 surgical procedures have been performed since January 17, the physician-Colonel Michel Orcel believes that the “enormous cohesion of his unit is its main asset. “Of course, we all suddenly slack when we lose a patient of 20 years for which we fought for hours using all our means of resuscitation, says he. But whenever one of us falters really, it was immediately supported by the other. “Less categorical, a young lifeguard says that despite years of training, he did not expect to fully “it” – that is to say to the thousands of corpses encountered on his way since his arrival in town. “Whenever we enter the ruins we crossed one or two. In the end it becomes hard. “The awareness of his own limitations has also been a test. “We should take time to rest, it is human. But we also knew that there were dozens of Haitians, perhaps children who were trapped under the ruins, waiting for us and had little time … ”

Faced with an unprecedented wave of open fractures, deep wounds and other ground, the French doctors were often hung up with “beautiful moments of life” occurring here and there. “We have made several deliveries that every time we restore some strength,” smiled the Colonel Louvier. Christophe Carrier testified that he was “stunned” by the ability of people to bounce the reopening of small markets everywhere – while on the roadside, there were still dogs and pigs eating human remains. A military finally welcomed the “great dignity of the Haitians meet their physical pain.”

“Through their training, we at present feel that our staff are pretty well cashed the coup,” says Damien Deluz, the psychologist firefighters Val-de-Marne. For all practical purposes, all the soldiers involved have been imposing a “debrief” of 24 hours in Fort-de-France. An individualized psychological They were also proposed. “For us, the military, it is not obvious to use such support, however, said Chief Warrant Officer Eric Dubois.

The incident occurred yesterday in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti devastated by the earthquake of January 12.

Six marine approached me, surrounded me before taking my camera in my open work bag. They then left with it, “he told the photographer Homer Cardichon, cited by the defense organization of journalists based in Paris.
“An hour later, one of them returned to photograph me and returned my camera. I found later  that soldiers had destroyed some of the photos I took,” said the photographer.

Denouncing “an act of blatant censorship,” The organization of Reporters Without Borders said that “information is essential to the reconstruction of Haiti and to the mobilization of citizens for their own future.”

More than 10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to help Haiti after the earthquake that claimed over 200,000 lives by government.

So far, Laura Silsby, of the charity ‘Refuge for a new life for children, based in Idaho (north-western United States), was presented as the group leader. “We have come only to help children. We had good intentions,” she said.

The ten members of the group were arrested Friday near the Dominican border along with 33 children whose the youngest is 2 months old and the oldest of the 12 is 14 years old, according to sources. some have since been claimed by people posing as their parents.

“I made the preliminary information and have referred the case to the prosecution,” said Justice of Peace in Delmas (central district of Port-au-Prince). “What the prosecution will now decide on further action in this matter”, that is to say or not to prosecute the suspects, he said adding that this procedure would take place today.

The hearings are to start around 10:00 local and open to the public, said the prosecutor of Port-au-Prince Mazar fortifications, told reporters in the Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ), where suspects are held.

The ten U.S. citizens, Baptists members of a charity called “The Sanctuary for a new life for children, based in Idaho (north-western United States), were arrested Friday near the Dominican border, along with 33 children from 2 months to 14 years.

The judge “has finished drafting the minutes of the preliminary information and the file will now be forwarded to the prosecution, on Wednesday confirmed Edwin Cock, Haitian lawyer, suspects.

“It is the Government Commissioner (attorney, editor’s note) who will decide whether the case will be sent before a judge or whether they will close the case,” he added, the DCPJ.

The prosecutor of Port-au-Prince fortifications Mazar said Monday that a prosecution for “child trafficking, kidnapping and conspiracy” were considered, confirmed Wednesday what Mr. Pierre-Louis.

For that aid is effective, it must “converge on the international level” and “internal coordination” to ensure the control, which requires the strengthening of central authority in Haiti, said Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. “First, the emergency humanitarian aid must continue, but there are logistical problems to solve. (…) We need a central authority in Haiti, which oversees the support that is happening for the ‘Humanitarian aid the desired effect, “he said.

Participants at the meeting also proposed to assess the economic impact of the earthquake and to establish a priority list in the island. Mr. Fernandez suggested that the amount of the debts of his country to be assigned to a fund for Haiti, once paid. “The Dominican Republic has a debt with the Paris Club [an informal group of official creditors that meet regularly in Paris, and whose role is to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to payment difficulties experienced by debtor nations, Editor's note ]. We will honor this debt, but we hope that this payment can be channeled towards the creation of a special fund for Haiti, “he said.

According to the Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, presented at the meeting, “the government and people of Haiti must be major players in the reconstruction process,” but “the involvement of the whole community International “is” necessary “.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) plans to give Haiti’s debt, about $ 480 million, said in Santo Domingo Manuel Labrador, spokesman for the institution in the Caribbean country, which also announced the provision of 364 million dollars. France also calls the cancellation of the remainder of Haiti’s debt to Paris Club creditors of key public, announced Friday the Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde. Haiti has accumulated in 2009 a debt of over $ 1 billion, mainly vis-à-vis the World Bank and IDB, but also towards the countries of the Paris Club, according to the Department of Economics Paris.

The Haitian president, René Préval, was held at the beginning of the meeting that his country’s reconstruction could be done only from the outside and passed by the “political and economic stability.” “We must strengthen democratic institutions,” he had launched. A meeting of contributors to help with Haiti will be held in Montreal January 25.

“There is no real problem with their presence. They are not trying to dominate the country militarily, they have no other purpose than the relief operation, told the press on sub – UN Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.

“We are very happy they are there,” he said. “They have done things that we were not able, like managing the airport, help repair the port or by air transport very heavy objects that we could not carry ourselves in the first weeks.

Holmes acknowledged that American troops would sometimes help the Mission of the United Nations Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to provide security during food distribution or, more rarely, to protect aid convoys.

But “the force keeping the peace is the primary responsibility for safety is so since the beginning and nobody disputes,” he said, estimating that U.S. and Canadian troops should not stay more than ” few months “in Haiti.

“I think that as as the UN and the normal aid is increasing, and this is beginning to accelerate now, their presence is less and less necessary and will be happy to retire,” Did he said, asserting that the U.S. military and Canadian “have other things to do.”

The United States has deployed some 20,000 troops on land and sea to participate in humanitarian aid after the earthquake of 12 January which was 170,000 deaths.

This deployment has been criticized by some South American states, including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, who see it as an “occupation” of the poorest country in the Americas.

I can go back to the moment at 9:45pm when Anderson explained that he would need someone to take over the broadcast because he was catching an 11pm flight to the Dominican Republic to be sure to make it into Haiti in the morning. I asked myself “Where did this love for Haiti come from?” I mean in this pale skinned, thin White man, stood this glowing center of hope for my people. “Why this interest, when usually the world simply turns the page when they hear the word Haiti?” But sure enough in the morning, after 10 agonizing hours of calling family and friends with no success, it was CNN who was first on the ground. Anderson Cooper, without a red cape, with no Gold S on his chest, simply an ash grey t-shirt which somehow symbolized the grayness of the country shown behind him as he reported. First on the scene, like a doctor scrubbing into surgery, Anderson Cooper was there. Day and night it seemed he headed our plea. He became our voice. He spoke to us, thru us and for us, so that the world would listen. He represented the majority, when in reality people were not ready to see the devastation brought to my minority.

The days turned into weeks and as his images and those of Dr. Gupta continued to ravish our minds and shake our souls, we could not just sit here and do nothing. These two gentlemen become our bulldozers, they showed us what we didn’t want to see, but should see, they told us about the stories that needed to be heard, not what was scripted by CNN Studio Producers. Larry King joined the fight as Gupta and Cooper continued everyday to devote their lives to our cause. The dynamic duo is what I called them, but it is more than super hero powers that kept them at the forefront of our minds, hearts, souls, thoughts and prayers. Sheer humanity helped those men endure for us. They automatically become the face of this terrible tragedy, the light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that we could make a difference, that we would rise above everything and Live again.

Many joke that Anderson Cooper is now an Honorary Haitian, and many would love the opportunity to shake his hand, to hug him, to invite him to dinner and to simply say THANK YOU – for not leaving us behind. Thank you for coming to our rescue, Thank you for being there when no one else was, like a best friend at a time of desperation. Thank you for caring and for being the type of person we all should strive to be.

These two men, Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sonjay Gupta will receive awards from every angle, every Haitian-American association, and they will continue to receive journalistic honors for their commitment to being the eyes and ears of an entire nation. But today, I needed to genuinely and unconditionally put finger to keyboard to say, MESI AMPIL! For reminding me that it is not my country’s title of destitute, its generalization of illiteracy or blackness, nor is it its negative view from the outside of the world’s window that matters, but it is the generosity, purity, strength and determination of my people from the inside of its throbbing heart that keeps me, my children, my parents and my family alive. Through your magic lens and your surgical prowess gentlemen, the world now knows that Haiti exists and will once again pridefully stand and prevail.

–
Mia Lopez
M.I.A. Media, Inc.
Image Management-Public Relations

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the 40-year-old medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon, who turned down the position of U.S. surgeon general in 2009, has stepped in to the fill the very void he was sent to Haiti to cover as a journalist. – cnn.com

Dr. Gupta arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, a day after the 7.0 earthquake that shocked the crowded city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The following day Dr. Gupta examined a 15-day-old Haitian baby girl with a head injury whose mother had died in the quake. After placing the child on a wooden plank serving as a makeshift exam table, Dr. Gupta gently probed the baby’s skull for signs of a fracture. He concluded that she didn’t appear to have a fracture, and then he and a producer wrapped the infants head in gauze.