36 UN personnel killed, nearly 200 missing in Haiti

UNITED NATIONS — Rescuers who heard scratching sounds pulled a security guard from the UN headquarters building that collapsed in the Haiti earthquake, “a small miracle” as 36 UN personnel were confirmed dead and nearly 200 remained missing, the head of the world body said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the crew located Tarmo Joveer, an Estonian guard, under about 4 meters (13 feet) of rubble. He was given water through a rubber tube until he was pulled out covered in dust but unhurt, the UN said.

Ban said the UN’s mission chief, Hedi Annabi, and his chief deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa, are among roughly 100 people still buried in the rubble of the five-story building. The other missing UN personnel were in other buildings and facilities.

In a videoconference from Port-au-Prince, David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission, said the lastest survivor, Joveer, “walked out of there unscathed. ... He was very, very grateful to be alive.”

Wimhurst said early yesterday afternoon that the dead include 19 UN peacekeepers, four international police officers and 13 civilians. The injured include 26 military, nine police and 38 civilians, of whom 24 are Haitian nationals.

He said about 160 national and international civilian staffers, 18 police, and 10 military personnel are still missing.

 “I think the first 72 hours will be critically important,” Ban said. “Now we are approaching 48 hours... I hope that we will have more and more survivors.”

“The priority remains emergency search and rescue. People remain alive under the rubble, and we must save as many lives as we can,” he said.

Rescue teams from China, the US, France and the Dominican Republic have arrived with dogs and listening equipment and Ban said more teams will be arriving soon.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program said its warehouses in the Haitian capital have been looted.

The WFP doesn’t know how much of its pre-earthquake stockpile in Port-au-Prince of 15,000 tons of food aid remains.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are hungry after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday.

Spokeswoman Emilia Casella stressed yesterday that looting was normal in emergency situations.

She noted that regular food stores in the capital also “have been cleaned out” since the quake.

The agency said it was working to collect enough ready-to-eat meals to feed two million Haitians for a month.            – AP