Washington, February 02: Former US President Bill Clinton, currently the UN special envoy to Haiti, will be named international coordinator for relief efforts in the earthquake-devastated country, UN officials said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been formally announced, UN diplomats and officials said Clinton was the most obvious choice to coordinate aid and reconstruction in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
“The official announcement should come sometime this week,” a UN official said. Another official said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would formally appoint Clinton, who would “represent the UN at the strategic level” and coordinate aid, financial assistance and reconstruction.
Several Security Council diplomats said Clinton had strong backing from UN member states.
They said he was the right person for the job because he can combine his UN authority with his experience and connections in the US government.
The former president, whose wife Hillary Clinton is US secretary of state, has been actively involved in the Haiti relief effort from the beginning and has already visited the country to witness the destruction for himself.
Clinton told a meeting of global leaders in Davos, Switzerland, last week that there were “serious unmet food and water needs” in Haiti and appealed for short- and long-term funds to help the country.
Nearly three weeks after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed up to 200,000 Haitians and made up to 1 million homeless, a huge US-led international relief operation has been struggling to help injured and hungry survivors.
The United Nations, which has more than 12,600 troops and police in Haiti, has been overseeing the emergency relief effort in coordination with the US military, which has mobilized more than 10,000 personnel to help the country.
The world body is still reeling from the loss of at least 92 UN personnel who were killed after the UN peacekeeping mission’s headquarters and other buildings collapsed in the January 12 earthquake.
—Agencies