Several experts have questioned the validity of the death toll numbers ; Anthony Penna , professor emeritus in environmental history at Northeastern University , warned that casualty estimates could only be a " guesstimate " , and Belgian disaster response expert Claude de Ville de Goyet noted that " round numbers are a sure sign that nobody know . " Edmond Mulet , UN Assistant Secretary @-@ General for Peacekeeping Operations , said , " I do not think we will ever know what the death toll is from this earthquake " , while the director of the Haitian Red Cross , Jean @-@ Pierre Guiteau , noted that his organization had not had the time to count bodies , as their focus had been on the treatment of survivors .