NIRJ DEVA MEP: "NEED FOR AID IN HAITI
Posted, January 18, 2010 @ 00:00
The Co-ordinator of the European Parliament’s Development Committee, Nirj Deva, today demanded that the EU urgently supplies immediate humanitarian aid to the earthquake-ravaged people of Haiti.
Deva said: “This is a terrible disaster for a people that have suffered so much already."
"According to the Haitian Prime Minister, 100,000 are already feared dead. I am now calling on the European Union's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to urgently prioritise the needs of the desperate peoples of Haiti. Our humanitarian aid must be swift, immediate and effective, otherwise there will be misery and suffering beyond our comprehension."
“I have written to Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, to insist that he does not wait for the Commission hearings to conclude (26th January), but to mandate Karel de Gucht, the outgoing Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, to oversee the immediate supply of essentials such as clean water and diphtheria tablets, among much more.”
Deva concluded: “If we sit on our hands now, while potentially millions thirst, starve and die, because we are distracted by a myopic self-fascination with EU procedure, we will never forgive ourselves.”