Donors’ Conference for quake victims
Pak, UN set to put fresh pleas for aid

MUZAFFARABAD—Pakistan and the United Nations laid out the quake-hit country’s needs ahead of a major donors meeting, as rescuers struggled to reach survivors before bad weather closes in.
Tens of thousands of people remain without adequate shelter and food more than two weeks after the October 8 disaster, despite repeated warnings by UN chiefs that the world has not done enough to help.
Donor nations will meet Wednesday in the Swiss city of Geneva where they will face fresh pleas to contribute tents, helicopters and relief cash before winter snows add to the death toll of more than 53,000.
“We will be trying to make sure the world understands the scope of the disaster, to really bring home how very serious it is,” UN spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
She pointed out that only 90 million dollars had so far been pledged towards the UN’s 312-million-dollar appeal for victims of the 7.6-magnitude quake.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan — who is due to address Wednesday’s conference — is set to visit Pakistan in mid-November to keep the issue in the spotlight, another UN official said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan needs help not only to care for survivors in the immediate future but also to meet the gargantuan costs of rebuilding an entire region that was flattened by the quake.
Losses are estimated at around five billion dollars and the devastation is spread over a rugged area of about 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 square miles), a Pakistani finance ministry official said.
Salman Shah, presidential economics advisor, and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar are due to lead the country’s appeal.
“Pakistan will highlight its need to rebuild infrastructure and rehabilitate thousands of injured or disabled and about 3.3 million people rendered homeless by the earthquake,” the official told newsmen.
As part of a spike in aid efforts following last week’s urgent UN appeals, the United States said it would nearly double the number of troops helping aid efforts in Pakistan, its “war on terror” ally, to nearly 1,000.
A US MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit based in Germany started work in Muzaffarabad Tuesday, treating injured quake victims who are continuing to stream down from the nearby mountains.
“Thanks be to God,” said Sharif Hussain, who brought his eight-year-old son Faizal 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the village of Khat to the hospital for treatment of a broken leg.
Asked if the hospital was part of US efforts to boost its image in the Muslim world, US military spokesman Lieutenant Kevin Stephens said: “We are not here for a popularity contest”.
Pakistan’s military sent geologists to investigate rumours of volcanic activity in the quake zone, after fearful survivors reported seeing fire in the mountains.
Pakistan has no known volcanoes, although there are some so-called “mud volcanoes” along its far southwestern coast which occasionally spew out methane gas.
“We have not seen any evidence of any volcanic activity. But certain people have reported seeing smoke and fire in the night coming out of the mountain,” chief military spokesman General Shaukat Sultan told newsmen.
“On Monday the top army general in the area flew over the mountains but found nothing. However, in view of some people reporting it, a team of geologists has been sent into the area to assess the situation”.
Across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, angry Indian Kashmiris seeking to be reuinted with their stricken families in the Pakistani zone hit out at Islamabad and New Delhi for delaying the opening of the frontier dividing the Himalayan region. “It is a frustrating experience,” said Ghulam Qadir, 72, whose sister, son-in-law and brother-in-law were killed by the quake in Muzaffarabad.
Officials from the two countries, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, are due to meet in Islamabad Friday to discuss their varying plans for crossing points, nearly three weeks after the quake.—Agencies