[WAsummit] Fwd: Caricom Blocked

[Sharon Martinas]

A little more on the situation in Haiti.   Not only has Caricom been  
blocked from landing in Haiti, as indicated in this email which  
reflects the factual information of people on the ground; but at this  
point the US military is responsible for blocking all food, water and  
medicine from getting into the suffering population of Port au Prince  
until the area can be made 'safe from looters.'

	This is being done in two ways:  (1) All military planes have  
priority over humanitarian planes for landing rights at the Port au  
Prince airport, and (2) the huge amount of supplies of medicine, food  
and water that has already arrived in the airport is not being  
distributed to the people of Port au Prince until there are  
'sufficient' military there to stop the people from 'looting of  
supplies.'

	New Orleans all over again.

	Please please turn of NPR and CNN and turn on to sources from  
organizations with links to grassroots organizations on the ground.    
For example, check www.haitisolidarity.net for one of many accurate  
sources for information.  and there are many more.

	with rage, frustration and love, sharon

	

Begin forwarded message:

> From: KA <kaliakuno at gmail.com>
> Date: January 17, 2010 5:02:19 PM PST
> To: New Afrika <newafrika at mxgm.org>, activistmembers <ActivistMembers at yahoogroups.com 
> >,  Black Left Unity <blackleftunity at googlegroups.com>,  "Membership at lists.ggjalliance.org 
> " <membership at lists.ggjalliance.org>, katrinasolidarity at googlegroups.com 
> ,  GSHRWG at googlegroups.com
> Subject: Fwd: [BlackLeftUnity:2535] Caricom Blocked
> Reply-To: katrinasolidarity at googlegroups.com
>
> We must fight against the US tightening its grip on Haiti. We must  
> demand that the Obama administration let all aid in now and withdraw  
> the military immediately!
>
> In Unity and Struggle,
> Kali
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: <theresaelamin at aol.com>
> Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:33 PM
> Subject: [BlackLeftUnity:2535] Caricom Blocked
> To: blackleftunity at googlegroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  FULL STORY
> CARICOM BLOCKED
> ...as US takes control of airport
> Rickey Singh Barbados
> Sunday, January 17th 2010
> 		
> 	
>
>
> 	
>
> IN DIRE NEED: A woman reacts in a street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,  
> yesterday. Relief groups and officials are focused on moving aid  
> flowing into Haiti to survivors of the powerful 7.0 earthquake that  
> hit the country on Tuesday. -Photo: AP
> THE CARIBBEAN Community’s emergency aid mission to Haiti, comprising  
> Heads of Government and leading technical officials, failed to  
> secure permission Friday to land at that devastated country’s  
> airport, now under the control of the United States.
> Consequently, the Caricom ’assessment mission’, that was to  
> determine priority humanitarian needs resulting from the mind- 
> boggling earthquake disaster of Haiti last Tuesday, had to travel  
> back from Jamaica to their respective home destinations. .
> On Friday afternoon the US State Department confirmed signing two  
> ’Memoranda of Understanding’ with the Government of Haiti that made  
> ’official that the United Stateas is in charge of all inbound and  
> outbound flights and aid off-loading. ..’
> Further, according to the agreements signed, US medical personnel  
> ’now have the authority to operate on Haitian                      
> citizens and otherwise render medical assistance without having to  
> wait for licences from Haiti’s government... .’
> Prior to the US taking control of Haiti’s airport, a batch of some  
> 30 Cuban doctors had left Havana, following Wednesday’s earthquake,  
> to join more than 300 of their colleagues who have been working  
> there for more than a year.
>
> Last evening the frustration suffered by the Caricom mission to get  
> landing permission was expected to be raised in a scheduled meeting  
> at Jamaica’s Norman Manley International Airport with US Secretary  
> of State, Hilary Clinton.
> Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding who was making arrangements  
> for the meeting with Clinton, following her visit earlier in the day  
> to witness the devasation of the capital Port-au-Prince, said he  
> could not comment on details to be discussed.
> He, however, told this correspondent: ’I appreciate the chaos and  
> confusion at Haiti’s airport, where there is just one operational  
> runway. But Haiti is a member of Caricom and we simply have to be  
> facilitated and the truth is, there is hardly a functioning  
> government in Haiti...’
> Asked whether the difficulties encountered by the Caricom mission  
> may be related to reports that US authorities were not anxious to  
> facilitate landing of aircraft from Cuba and Venezuela, Prime  
> Minister Golding said he could ’only hope that there is no truth to  
> such immature thinking in the face of the horrific scale of Haiti’s  
> tragedy...’
> Golding, who has lead portfolio responsibility among Caricom leaders  
> for external economic relations, had a personal first-hand  
> assessment when he flew to Haiti on Thursday.
> A contingent of some 150 members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF  
> has since established a camp with medical facilities in the vicinity  
> of Haiti’s airport.
> Ahead of last evening scheduled meeting with Secretary of State  
> Clinton, Prime Minister Golding had discussed on Friday in Kingston  
> some of the problems to be overcome at a meeting he held in Kingston  
> on Friday with the Prime Ministers of Barbados and Dominica and  
> including the Community’s Secretary General...
> Among urgent matters to be discussed with Secretary Clinton was to  
> be possible use of the Norman Manley Airport as a primary hub, given  
> its short distance from Haiti (45 minutes), for all emergency  
> missions.
> The Community’s Secretary General (Edwin Carrington) explained that  
> proper use of the Norman Manley Airport would be consistent with a  
> decision last week for Jamaica to serve as the Sub-regional  
> Operational Focal Point (SOFP) responses to the Haitian humanitarian  
> crisis.
>
>
>
>
>
> __._,_.___
> Reply to sender | Reply to group
> Messages in this topic (1)
> RECENT ACTIVITY:
> Visit Your Group Start a New Topic
> Canada is not immune from the demand for reparations for Afrikan!
> MARKETPLACE
> Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living
> Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
> .
>
> __,_._,___
>
>
> Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection.  
> Sign up now. =
>
>
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google  
> Groups "BlackLeftUnity" group.
> To post to this group, send email to blackleftunity at googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to blackleftunity+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com 
> .
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/blackleftunity?hl=en 
> .
>
>
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google  
> Groups "bay area katrina solidarity network internal list" group.
> To post to this group, send email to katrinasolidarity at googlegroups.com 
> .
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to katrinasolidarity+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com 
> .
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/katrinasolidarity?hl=en 
> .

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wacan.org/pipermail/wasummit/attachments/20100117/8d5afe56/attachment-0001.html>