Haitians mourn at funeral as another survivor pulled from rubble

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Hundreds gathered for the funeral of the archbishop of Haiti's stricken capital yesterday, a rare formal ceremony that captured the collective mourning of a shattered nation where mass graves hold many of the dead.

While the two-hour ceremony was held for Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot and vicar Charles Benoit, who also perished in the Jan. 12 earthquake, people in the crowd of about 2,000 wept for deeply personal losses.

"We feel like we have lost everything. Our child, our country, our friend," said Junior Sant Juste, 30, a father whose 3-year-old daughter died when his home collapsed.

Meanwhile, as the United Nations said the Haitian government had declared an end to searches for living people trapped in the rubble, yet another survivor was rescued. French officials said they reached the 23-year-old man by digging a tunnel through the wreckage of a fruit and vegetable shop where the man had been buried for 11 days.

He was placed on a stretcher and given intravenous fluids as onlookers cheered. Rescuers said he was in good health.

"Life doesn't stop when a government says stop," said Lt. Col. Christophe Renou, a French Civil Protection official who is part of a team working at the site. "There is still some hope, but it is going to take some luck and God's help because there are so many destroyed buildings."

Authorities have stopped short of explicitly directing all teams to halt rescue efforts, and hopeful searchers continued picking through the ruins. But UN relief workers said the shift in focus is critical to care for the thousands living in squalid, makeshift camps that lack sanitation.

While deliveries of food, medicine and water have ticked up after initial logjams, the need continues to be overwhelming and doctors fear outbreaks of disease in the camps.

"It doesn't mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act," UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. She added that, "except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading."

About 132 people have been pulled alive from beneath collapsed buildings by international search and rescue teams, she said. Experts say the chance of saving trapped people begins diminishing after 72 hours.

One mother said it's too soon to give up. "Maybe there's a chance they're still alive," said Nicole Abraham, 33, wiping away tears as she spoke of hearing the cries of her children - ages 4, 6 and 15 - for the first two days after the quake.

Only a small number of funerals have been held since the 7.0-magnitude quake struck, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city. An estimated 200,000 people died, according to government figures.