NEWS The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 5 Floods kill more than 570 in Haiti; death toll rising GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) - The death toll from a tropical storm that devastated parts of Haiti rose to 573 late last night as search crews recovered hundreds of bodies carried away by raging weekend floods or buried by mud or the ruins of their homes, officials said. The bodies of at least 500 people killed by Tropical Storm Jeanne were filling morgues in Gonaives, according to Touissant Kong-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N. mission. Fifty-six were killed in northern Port-de-Paix and 17 died in the nearby town of Terre Neuve, officials said. "I l m .. "The water is high. As I iOst my it goes down, we expect to there's not] find more bodies," Kongo- Doudou said. can do. ... Two days after lashing Haiti, Jeanne regained IS Complete hurricane strength over the open Atlantic on and the clo Monday but posed no , immediate threat to land. I'm Wearin Since it developed last week, Jeanne has been blamed for at least 598 deaths, including 18 in Mo the Dominican Repub- lic and seven in Puerto Rico. "I lost my kids and there's nothing I can do," said Jean Estimable, whose 2-year-old daughter was killed and another of whose five children was missing and presumed dead. "All I have is complete despair and the clothes I'm wearing," he said, pointing to a floral dress and ripped pants borrowed from a neighbor. Many of the bodies stacked in Gonaives' flood-damaged General Hospital were children. In Gonaives, a city of about a quarter million, people waded through ankle-deep mud outside the mayor's office, where workers were shovel- ing out mud and doctors treated the wounded. Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesman for Haiti's civil protection agency, said the town's situation was "catastrophic." He said survivors "need everything from potable water to food, clothing, medication and disinfectants." A school bus lay smashed against a utility pole and waterlines up to 10 feet high showed the passage of the storm waters, which turned some roads into fast-flowing rivers. Floodwaters destroyed homes and crops in the Artibonite region that is Haiti's breadbasket. Katya Silme, 18, ids and hing I All I have e despair thes -Jean Estimable ther of 2-year-old killed in storm said she, her mother and six siblings spent the night in a tree because their house was flooded. "The river destroyed my house completely, and now we have nothing. We have not eaten anything since the floods," she said. Silme said she saw neigh- bors swept away in the waters Saturday. As she spoke, two dead children lay on a nearby porch, their faces covered with cloths. Ronald Jean-Marie, 38, said the waters tore down the concrete walls of his home in Raboteau slum and that his neighbors, a woman and her two young children, disappeared in the fast-moving current. The storm came four months after devastat- ing floods along the southern border of Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic. Some 1,700 bodies were recovered and 1,600 more were missing and presumed dead. Floods are particularly devastating in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, because it is almost completely deforested, leaving few roots to hold back rushing waters or mudslides. Gonaives also suffered fighting during the February rebellion that led to the ouster of Presi- dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide and left an estimat- ed 300 dead. AP PHOTO Cars destroyed by floods lie on a street in Gonaives, Haiti, yesterday. Receding floodwaters raged through neighborhoods of Haiti's third largest city, dragging people from their homes and forcing survivors to spend the night in trees, atop cars and on roof tops follow- ing Tropical Storm Jeanne. Argentine troops who are among more than 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti treated at least 150 people injured by the floods in Gonaives, mostly for cuts on feet and legs, said Lt. Cmdr. Emilio Vera. One man stood outside the flooded base used by the troops and asked soldiers to remove 11 bodies that were floating in his house, including four brothers and a sister. "I would. like to see if the soldiers could do something about these bodies," said Jean-Saint Manus, a 30-year-old student. "The door was closed. Everybody was trapped inside." Equipment including the X-ray machine was covered with mud at Gonaives's General Hospi- tal, said Dr. Pierre-Marie Dieudonne, a doctor with the Catholic agency Caritas. He said there was a great need for antibiotics, food and water. Three trucks carrying Red Cross relief sup- plies from tents to blankets rolled in yesterday, but two were mobbed by people who grabbed blankets and towels. U.N. troops stood by watch- ing. Only one truck arrived intact with tents at the mayor's office. 'Bush lifts most sanctions on Libya Removal triggers aid to Pan Am 103 families WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush yesterday removed a ban on com- mercial air service to Libya and released $1.3 billion in frozen Libyan assets in recognition of "significant" steps to eliminate its deadliest weapons pro- grams. In response, Libya is expected to dis- burse $1 billion in compensation pay- ments to 269 families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing. Libya, which has acknowledged responsibility for the bombing, had con- ditioned release of the money on an end to the two sets of U.S. sanctions. It had established a deadline of tomorrow for Bush to act. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush lifted the sanc- tions by signing an executive order. He credited Libya with having taken significant actions over the past nine months to eliminate its chemical, bio- logical and nuclear weapons programs. "Concerns over weapons of mass destruction no longer pose a barrier to the normalization of U.S.-Libyan rela- tions," McClellan said. He added that Libya facilitated the removal of all significant elements of its declared nuclear weapons program and began a process of converting a chemical facility at Rabta to a pharma- ceutical plant. The country also destroyed chemi- cal munitions and removed highly enriched uranium for its research reactor and equipment for uranium enrichment, he said. Libya also eliminated one class of Scud missile and agreed to eliminate another, he added. "They have pledged to halt all mili- tary trade with countries of proliferation concern and increased our understand- ing of the global black market in the world's most dangerous technologies," McClellan added. Libya's disarmament plan has led to a substantial improvement in ties with the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, once considered to be among the most dangerous of U.S. adversaries. During the 1980's, President Reagan twice ordered air strikes against Libya. Still on the books is Libya's inclu- sion on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, which sub- stantially restricts commercial activi- ties between the two countries. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said terrorism remained a concern and cited reports that Libya may have been involved in an attempt on the life of Saudi ruler Crown Prince Abdullah. In the Pan Am bombing, all 259 people on board were killed, includ- ing 189 Americans. Also killed were 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. INTEGRATION Continued from page 1. "What do you tell students when they ask, 'How can affirmative action be working if students form cliques?"' While Anderson conceded that self- segregation can serve an important purpose - social comfort for racial minorities is one -simultaneous efforts to integrate should always be at the fore- front of our minds. "We are involved in a process that will take many decades," Anderson said. "We're overcoming entrenched habits. Habit change - we know - is very dif- ficult." "Racial Integration as a Compelling Interest" was one in a series of brown bag lectures to be held throughout the academic year by the Institute for the Humanities.