Deluded Haitian protester: "We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter."

FORMER US president Bill Clinton has visited the headquarters of the Haitian government as more than 200 people protested outside, demanding tents more than three weeks after a devastating quake that killed 220,000.

Mr Clinton's arrival in Haiti comes amid persistent problems in getting aid to the estimated 1 million Haitians left homeless after the January 12 quake and a controversy over 10 Americans charged with trying to smuggle children out of the country.

Mr Clinton, however, told reporters that his mission did not involve the jailed Americans.

"That's not within my mandate," he said. "I know that the State Department and government have had these discussions."

As he went inside the government building, about 200 people from a neighbourhood in northern Port-au-Prince gathered outside to complain that they were still without shelter.

"Our children are burning in the sun," said Mentor Natacha, 30, a mother of two. "We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter."

The protesters said they hoped to meet Mr Clinton, who was designated on Wednesday as the co-ordinator of international aid for Haiti by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Meanwhile, the Americans held in the child abduction case had been held in the government office that MrClinton visited but were transferred to the prosecutor's office before his arrival.

A lawyer for the group said the prosecutor's office was examining their request for provisional release.

"We are asking that they be released provisionally, pending their trial," said Edwyn Coq. "I'm working to have them free today."

LNK

Deluded Haitian protester: "We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter."

Deluded Haitian protester: "We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter."

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

AnCaps On Rights, Individualism & Lifestyles