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View Full Version : Fernandez meets with Preval



NewsWhore
01-15-2010, 06:00 PM
In a meeting held yesterday, Presidents Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic and Rene Preval of Haiti along with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive agreed to implement an "immediate response" plan aimed at mitigating the damage caused by the earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital last Tuesday. As a priority, the agreement seeks to restore communications, rescue the injured and retrieve and bury the bodies from the ruins, restore electricity and water supplies, as well as work out a joint plan with Minustah and the National Army for receiving and delivering international aid.
Fernandez said that the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) and the State Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) would work towards restoring communications and energy, while heavy equipment sent from the DR is already at work removing the rubble. Fernandez, Preval and Bellerive signed the agreement at the Minustah installations in the Haitian capital. Brazilian Defense Minister Wilson Jobim also took part.
It was reported that a vaccination campaign would be conducted along the frontier in the next few days, run by the Dominican Republic Ministry of Public Health as a way of preventing epidemics.
Rene Preval thanked President Fernandez for his presence, solidarity, and the support received, pointing out that he was the first national leader to visit his country after the earthquake.
In an interview with MSNBC, President Leonel Fernandez stressed that this was not a short-term problem, but a long-term situation. Fernandez said that the early presence of orange-uniformed civil defense volunteers, supplies and heavy equipment for clearing rubble were a gesture of solidarity from the DR. He told reporter Tom Llamas that "a quick response" had to be provided, and in reply to a question he said that cost was not a consideration at the moment.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/34865183#34865183

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