Disaster Relief Pours Into Himalayas

by Zofeen T. Ebrahim

(IPS) KARACHI -- The round-the-clock buzz of activity on the tarmac of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) museum here could be mistaken for war mobilization. But the enemy is a Himalayan winter setting down on the stunned survivors of Saturday's earthquake, which may have killed 100,000 people in disputed Kashmir.

"People say it's reminiscent of the spirit of the people during the 1965 war (one of several fought with India over Kashmir), I'd like to call it the spirit of 2005, of the here and now," said Sohail Ahmed, a popular presenter of a radio show drumming up support for the already massive relief operation here and in the national capital of Islamabad.

Five days after a powerful earthquake, touching 7.6 on the Richter scale, devastated towns and villages along the Line of Control (LoC), that separates the Pakistan and Indian parts of Kashmir, aid and relief were yet to reach thousands of survivors cut off by massive landslides and foul weather in the already difficult mountain terrain.

It is a measure of the magnitude of the tragedy and the logistical difficulties in Kashmir that Indian soldiers were allowed to cross the heavily fortified LoC, on Wednesday, to assist relief and rescue operations in Pakistani villages and areas that are more readily accessible from the Indian side.

On Wednesday morning, an Indian Air Force Ilyushin-76 transporter landed in Islamabad carrying 25 tons of relief material including blankets, tents, plastic sheeting, mattresses and medicine in the first such consignment from a country regarded as the enemy.

The two countries, partitioned in 1947 into Islamic Pakistan and Hindu majority India, have fought several wars to gain full control over the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir -- but their armies have been more or less at a standstill along the LoC.

The Indian plane could not land initially because of the large number of transporters from no less than 30 different countries already on the runways that have been flying in supplies for onward movement to Kashmir.

Relief material being pooled here and in Islamabad are being flown across an 'air bridge' to Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir, where a tent city is taking shape to accommodate some of the more than two million people estimated to have been rendered homeless.

Muzaffarabad's airport can only accommodate small aircraft and the sheer number of injured people streaming in has allowed medical teams to attend to only those needing urgent care or have them flown to larger cities while others are being turned away.

Field hospitals set up in Muzaffarabad and in Bagh and Mansehra are reportedly still unable to cope as people are steadily being flown in by helicopters or are trekking in.

On Wednesday, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf responded in a televised address to growing criticism that timely aid had not been delivered to the survivors.

"I am deeply saddened that some people had to wait for days before aid reached them," Musharraf said adding that the "tragedy was much bigger than the capacity and capability of the government as a whole."

Musharraf said delays were caused by roads leading to affected villages being blocked by landslides but that help was on its way in the shape of heavy lift helicopters moved by the U.S. army from neighboring Afghanistan.

Criticism has also been directed at Washington for not providing enough aid to its ally in 'war-against-terror' in Afghanistan next door.

But the U.S. has already diverted a dozen helicopters from Afghanistan while other countries have contributed at least 20 more to augment Pakistan army's own fleet of 122 transport choppers.

There has, however, been an unprecedented response from Pakistanis at home and abroad after television channels showed desperate people digging into rubble with bare hands looking for people who may still be alive and mothers clutching dead children still in school uniforms.

"There is not a single soul that has not been affected. I've never seen this kind of emotional intensity among people. The Ramadan has made the hearts softer, too, when people usually are more charitable," said one Karachi resident.

"I thought our cell-phone toting youth were an indifferent lot, just concerned about their self image and their music. But they've proved me wrong. I've never been so proud of being a Pakistani," says a middle-aged woman, who had arrived at the PAF along with her teenage son and daughter to volunteer services.

Since day one, the PAF Museum, one of five designated relief camps, was swarming with young volunteers bringing in mountains of relief goods, including cartons of milk, mineral water bottles, sacks of sugar, flour, pulses, blankets, bedding, sweaters and shrouds for the dead.

All over Karachi, stalls set up by welfare organizations, are bursting with essential goods -- blankets, quilts, cooking oil, sugar, bed sheets to be sent up to the 'front.'

Relief cells have been set up, for example, by the Edhi Foundation, South Asia's largest private social service network while TCS, a courier company is delivering relief goods free of charge to the foundation.

The governor of Sindh province has set up a relief cell at the governor's house. There are aid camps set up by workers of political parties like the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal which has dispatched relief material and teams of medical personnel to the affected areas by road.

The real task, which no one had foreseen, lay in sorting out the mammoth piles of assorted material at the PAF Museum and other collection centers and this is where the services of the young volunteers are coming in handy.

"I didn't know what to do so I joined a human chain and helped in loading the trucks," said Faisal Qureshi, a young volunteer.

Numerous blood collection camps have been set up by voluntary organizations in places like shopping malls. "There is a two-hour waiting period," said one donor, who had gone to donate blood at one of the camps soon after breaking her Ramadan fast.

The credit for this massive mobilization of resources and manpower can be attributed to the various private TV channels that are running non-stop, phone-in programs.

"People call from all over the country and abroad, asking where and how they can donate -- in cash or kind. Television is no longer one-way communication," said one presenter who received calls from Kashmir, with victims requesting human help, tents and shrouds.

Another caller, a doctor from the affected areas, asked for medicines for combating diarrhea, antibiotics, blood, syringes, ice-boxes, bandages, plaster of paris and other items.

The United Nations has warned of the possibility of disease outbreak and, on Tuesday, appealed for $272 million to cover expenses over the next six months that would include winter tents.