WHILE reviewing the relief operations being conducted in the earthquake devastated areas, President Pervez Musharraf observed at a high-level meeting held in Islamabad on Monday that our troops were operating against very heavy odds with a spirit of altruism. Indeed, the nation feels proud of its valiant soldiers who are involved in rescue and relief work with a sense of dedication and urgency in a wide area. They are rushing relief goods to the survivors on foot, through vehicular and animal transport and through helicopters. As the Civil Administration of the quake-hit areas became totally paralysed, only the Army could take up this most challenging job in a harsh weather and in inaccessible areas. Without planned activity, the rescue and relief work was an impossible task. This could be performed only by a disciplined force. Immediately after the monumental tragedy struck the region, the two Army Divisions from Gujranwala and Kharian moved to Azad Kashmir and Mansehra area and wasted no time in restoring communication links. Almost all blocked and damaged roads have been restored by the Army engineers and workers enabling supply of relief goods even to far-flung areas.
The Army Medical Corps promptly set up field hospitals where medical treatment is being provided to thousands of injured survivors of the killer earthquake. Critically injured patients are being airlifted for treatment in civil and military hospitals in the major cities including Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, Lahore and Peshawar. The press continues to publish inspiring examples of Army’s rescue and relief operations. An Army Aviation helicopter airlifted to Kharian Hospital two seriously burnt children and other members of their family from a Mansehra village at dead of night between Sunday and Monday where fire had gutted one of the survivors’ tents. Earlier, an Army helicopter with six Army officers and two others while on a relief supply mission in cloudy weather in Bagh Valley had crashed killing all on board. This has not dampened the spirit of other helicopter pilots who continue to fly sorties in the inaccessible areas.
As the winter approaches fast and hundreds of scattered villages on hilltop cannot be reached by road, Army choppers are rushing relief supplies to stranded survivors. The President has underscored the need for planned relief operations and the Army commanders are strictly following operating procedures to ensure relief supplies reach all survivors. However, lack of choppers is hampering relief operations. In the meantime, the U.S. is sending immediately 25 more choppers to join the relief efforts. Some 800,000 survivors as yet are without shelter and tents and more helicopters are desperately needed to avoid the much-feared second wave of deaths. The Army knows limitations of the logistics but its soldiers are not deterred. With a missionary zeal, our troops are working round-the-clock to mitigate sufferings of the millions of survivors. The foreign dignitaries and leaders of political parties who have been visiting the devastated areas are unanimous in lauding the role of our dedicated soldiers in alleviating human sufferings. While some suggestions have been made to involve the elected representatives in the relief operations, the scale of disaster was unimaginable and the challenge it posed could be met only by a disciplined force. Mercifully, our Army has done more than one could expect. We salute our valiant soldiers.

Crash and after

THE airline tragedy in Nigeria has shown, among other things, how dangerous it is in some cases for ordinary mortals to be right when high officials are wrong. The government has banned a private TV and radio station which got the facts about the location and devastation of the crash right — while the authorities were getting them entirely wrong.
The details are sadly simple. A Boeing 737 with 117 passengers and crew took off from Lagos in Nigeria on Sunday on a scheduled flight to Abuja, the capital. The aircraft, owned by the private company, Bellview Airlines, flew into a vicious tropical storm and, for reasons yet to be determined, crashed causing the deaths of all on board. Almost immediately the authorities announced the crash site was 245 miles north of Lagos and a local official reported that at least half the passengers had survived.
In fact the crash site was only 30 miles from Lagos and everyone was dead. The independent TV and radio station, AIT, proved this by getting journalists and a camera crew to the site while officials and emergency services were reportedly rushing off in the wrong location. In the wake of this humiliation for the authorities, the Nigerian National Broadcasting Commission suspended AIT’s broadcasting license. It accused Nigerian outlets in general of causing “confusion” in the international media through their reporting and AIT in particular of breaching reporting standards in its filming of dismembered bodies at the crash site. It is true that the commission realized the mistake soon and released a second statement “sequel to the interventions of many well-meaning Nigerians” permitting the outlet to recommence broadcasting but warning “stations to be fully aware of their social responsibilities.” However, the principle remains. Questionable taste does not constitute grounds for taking a broadcaster off the air. Such errors, if substantiated, are normally a matter simply of fines and perhaps obligatory apologies.
Nigeria has long had a vibrant and exciting press and its ebullience and enthusiasm have also flowed into broadcasting. If a TV station shows its viewers gory pictures of a disastrous plane crash, which the authorities insist — against all accurate information — took place 200 miles from where it did and in which they maintain there are many survivors, then that TV station can be said to be doing its job. In contrast, the authorities, persuaded by as yet undetermined factors and looking in entirely the wrong place, were not doing theirs. Deeply embarrassing mistakes like this do occur, even in the most sophisticated societies. Unless there was a sinister necessity to divert attention from the real crash site, which is surely unlikely, the best official response would have been to admit the error and thank the TV station for helping them correct the mistake. To crack down on the broadcasters in so draconian a manner, even for questionable judgment in showing grisly footage, ill befits Africa’s leading state. Instead of punishing AIT for getting it right, maybe some officials need reprimanding for getting it wrong.

—Arab News