Italy weighs into spat over US Haiti effort

By Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 25 2010 12:34 | Last updated: January 25 2010 12:34

Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, on Monday sought to contain the diplomatic fallout from harsh criticism of the US relief effort in Haiti made by Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy’s civil protection agency. Mr Bertolaso, who is close to Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, slammed the US response on Sunday night, telling Italian television that the US “confuses military intervention with emergency aid” and had failed to co-ordinate with humanitarian agencies in the quake-devastated country.

“We are missing a leader, a co-ordination capacity that goes beyond military discipline,” said Mr Bertolaso, who arrived in Haiti last Friday. “It’s a truly powerful show of force, but it’s completely out of touch with reality,” he said of the US military. Speaking generally, he also criticised what he called a “vanity parade” of people trying to demonstrate the importance of their own countries’ relief efforts.

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