Thousands more U.S. troops to arrive in Haiti

MEXICO CITY — Thousands more U.S. Marines and soldiers were expected Monday in and around earthquake-battered Haiti,
joining a global relief effort that appeared to be getting food and
water to growing numbers of desperate survivors in the capital.

The U.S. military’s plans called for the arrival of
7,500 more forces, to augment around 5,000 already on the ground or on
naval vessels offshore.

Troops are airlifting emergency supplies and the injured, providing logistical support, managing the Port-au-Prince airport and standing by to help provide security amid scattered reports of looting and violence in the capital.

Kenneth Merten, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said in a television interview Monday morning that the security situation was “obviously not perfect” but could be managed.

Merten said the Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers
had suffered losses that had impaired their ability to provide law and
order.

“This is not a perfect law-and-order situation here even in the best of times,” Merten said from Haiti on NBC’s
“Today” show. “While we’re watching it closely, we’re concerned about
it, we’re monitoring carefully, we don’t believe it’s anything that’s
unmanageable at this point.”

He said U.S. troops would play a backup security
role if neither Haitian police nor U.N. forces were able to maintain
order. Merten said U.S. troops had stepped in “on a couple individual
occasions.”

In a sign that the relief effort was picking up
steam, the U.N. World Food Program said Monday that it would hand out
ready-to-eat meals to 95,000 Haitians, an increase over the 67,000
people fed a day earlier.

The agency said an additional 43 metric tons of high-energy biscuits were being flown today from El Salvador to Port-au-Prince and that it was planning to shuttle 10,000 gallons of much-needed diesel fuel per day from neighboring Dominican Republic.

World Food Program officials said they would have to find new warehouses for food supplies in Port-au-Prince because of damage to previous storage facilities caused by aftershocks on Sunday.

Meanwhile, European Union bodies and member states have offered $576 million in relief and recovery aid, Reuters news agency reported.

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, Monday was to travel to the Caribbean
nation. He is the latest in a string of U.S. and U.N. officials to
visit since the 7.0 earthquake hit Tuesday, causing widespread
destruction and killing perhaps 100,000 or more people, according to
preliminary estimates by Haitian officials.

Clinton planned to meet with Haitian officials and
aid workers and help to deliver emergency supplies: food, water,
solar-powered flashlights, portable radios and generators, according to
a statement from the Clinton Foundation.

Clinton and former President George W. Bush have been tapped by President Obama to raise donations for earthquake relief. The Web site is ClintonBushHaitiFund.org.

“As U.N. special envoy for Haiti, I feel a deep obligation to the Haitian people to visit the country and meet with President (Rene) Preval to ensure our response continues to be coordinated and effective,” Clinton said in the statement, issued Sunday.

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