Haiti on Wednesday marked a painful first anniversary of the earthquake that killed nearly a quarter-million of its people, with the country gripped by political instability and still struggling to get back on its feet. The usually teeming streets of the capital Port-au-Prince were quiet as residents, dressed in their best clothes and often holding Bibles, walked to church.
They were mourning the more than 220,000 people killed almost instantly in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010. Already from early in the morning, national television played constant footage from the quake's aftermath, the shocking images of crushed corpses and screaming survivors triggering painful memories for viewers. Among the main events was a Catholic Mass outside the capital's collapsed cathedral, whose horrific ruins have become a symbol of the tragedy that day - and the failure, after 12 months, to get the country back on its feet.
Later, the Caribbean nation was to observe a minute of silence at 4:53 pm (2153 GMT), the moment that disaster struck. On Tuesday, officials and relatives of victims began commemorations by gathering at a mass grave on a windy hillside outside Port-au-Prince. President Rene Preval joined mourners who laid flowers and wreaths at the base of simple black crosses.
There had been "an earthquake of the heart," a priest said in nationally televised ceremony. "Let the heart of the people never cease to beat for charity and liberty." The anniversary finds Haiti barely healed from the trauma inflicted 12 months ago and gripped by political uncertainty over the holding of a runoff round in elections to replace Preval. The economy and infrastructure are crippled, a cholera outbreak continues to kill, and more than 800,000 people live in squalid tent camps, according to a new official count. Rebuilding has hardly begun.
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