Haiti officially abandons search for trapped earthquake victims

Haiti officially abandoned earthquake search and rescue efforts as survivors gathered in a ruined cathedral yesterday to mourn the country's archbishop and 110,000 other victims of the disaster.

The government's decision came despite the rescue last Friday of two people who spent 10 days buried in the rubble, but officials said it was aimed at letting aid workers focus on getting supplies to hundreds of thousands of people.

The UN warned meanwhile that Haiti's upcoming rainy season - a source of other disasters that have plagued the country in recent years - could pose a new threat to beleaguered survivors of the 7.0-magnitude quake.

The world body said 132 people had been saved from debris by 67 international teams, a record for such a disaster, but that the Haitian government had declared the search phase over at 10 p.m. last Friday.

"The government made its decision after consulting international experts; it's a sovereign decision," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokesman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP.

An 84-year-old woman and 22-year-old man defied the odds by being rescued from the rubble of buildings in Port-au-Prince last Friday. Both were being treated in hospital.

Hundreds of mourners including President Rene Preval were expected to attend the funeral service of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Port au Prince, at the Notre Dame de l'Assomption Cathedral, which was left in ruins by the quake.

The 63-year-old, who was killed in the disaster, was a popular figure in this largely Catholic country. US President Barack Obama's aid coordinator for Haiti, Rajiv Shah, was also due to attend the funeral.

The US has sent economic and technical aid to Haiti, and a total of 20,000 US military personnel are due to be in Haiti or on ships offshore by today.

Signs of normal life have been returning to Port-au-Prince, with shops reopening and, yesterday, Haitians lining up outside private banks as they awaited the reopening of branches which have been closed since the quake.

But as deliveries of food, water, shelter and medical care scaled up in Port-au-Prince and the worst affected towns of Jacmel and Leogane, a huge relocation of survivors out of the capital is also underway.

"The number of people leaving Port-au-Prince is increasing daily," the UN said, as more than 130,000 people took advantage of the government's offer of free transport to other cities.

An unknown number of other people had left the capital by private means, it said.

In Port-au-Prince last Friday a first supply of food was distributed in front of the Champ de Mars central plaza which had become a huge refugee camp. Water tankers and toilet blocks were set up and electricity was being installed.

"Our pathetic, awful life will be easier. It seems I will finally be able to sleep tonight," said Suze Jean-François, one of the first to be given a tent at the site. Her daughter was killed in the quake.

Many, however, remained living in squalid conditions while hospitals reported heartrending cases such as a four-year-old with cerebral palsy who was abandoned on a doorstep.

The child was left with a message saying "This little boy has no father and no mother. Whoever cares about him is his family," according to doctors and nurses at a French field hospital in Port-au-Prince.

The UN World Food Programme said yesterday it had scaled up its food aid to quake survivors and distributed two million meals last Friday, up from 1.2 million last Thursday.

"We are getting the job done, even if we wish we could do more, quicker," the agency's executive director Josette Sheeran said after a two-day mission to Haiti.

Haiti's interior ministry said last Friday the confirmed death toll from the quake now stood at 111,499. It said more than 193,000 people were injured and more than 609,000 were living in temporary camps.

The UN's Byrs meanwhile underlined that Haiti's rainy season was about to begin, potentially causing further problems for survivors already exposed to the elements and at risk of disease.