(MorningStar) – Haiti’s former secretary of state for national defence and human rights activists has warned against the militarisation of quake relief efforts as Washington confirmed that it had 12,000 US troops deployed in or around Haiti.

On Monday, US soldiers secured a field stretching just over a mile long so that a C-17 aircraft could drop 3,300 gallons of water and 14,500 meals.

The troops have distributed those rations to the population, according to US officials.

Last week, US military chiefs ruled out direct air drops into “unsecured populated areas” because of their concerns over street rioting.

US military mission in Haiti spokesman Captain John Kirby said the plan remained to put troops in charge of handing out supplies once they landed instead of droppingathem by air into city centres.

Deputy commander for US military operations in Haiti Major General Daniel Allyn said that the US military had delivered more than 400,000 bottles of water and 300,000 food rations in the past six days.

But ex-Haitian secretary of state for national defence Patrick Elie questioned whether the US military was the best organisation to lead relief efforts.

Mr Elie said: “There is no war here. We don’t need soldiers as such.”

Amid reports that US troops in charge of the country’s airport had turned away two Mexican aircraft loaded with vital lifesaving equipment and forced a Doctors Without Borders cargo plane to reroute, the former top official said: “The choice of what lands and what doesn’t land at the airport should be determined by the Haitians.

“Otherwise, it’s a takeover, and what might happen is that the needs of Haitians are not taken into account.”

Centre for Constitutional Rights legal director Bill Quigley, who was in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck, said: “After Katrina, the constant looping by TV networks of looting gave people the impression that looting was the major event going on.”

Mr Quigley identified “a clear tendency among some to demonise the locals.”

He warned that reports on Haiti saying “the locals are restless” or “it appears we are on the edge of violence” feed into a “blaming of the victim mentality that will give some an excuse to say that ‘these people live in a culture of poverty and violence and there is no helping them’.”

Meanwhile, a big new earthquake shook Haiti on Wednesday, but there was no immediate sign of significant damage.

The epicentre of the new 6.1 magnitude quake was 36 miles west of the Port-au-Prince.

Source: Morning Star Online