Rich nations accused of giving ‘nothing’

ISLAMABAD—The United Nations almost doubled its appeal for donations to quake victims as some rich nations were accused of contributing nothing to help the survivors.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which increased its emergency shelter programme appeal to $30m from $22m, said it had only received $4m — from Sweden, Japan and Italy. "We need more resources to save two million to three million lives and we need much more resources in the next few days," Jan Egeland, the UN's under secretary general for humanitarian relief, said.
The charity Oxfam said less than 30 per cent of the UN's original target had been pledged. It named France, Austria and Spain among seven of the world's richest countries which had not contributed a single penny to the UN's emergency appeal for the earthquake. Oxfam also accused the US, Japan, Germany and Italy of not giving their "fair share" to the appeal in proportion to the size of their economies.
It is rare for charities to take so confrontational an approach to major international donors, and Oxfam's outburst is a sign of increasing desperation in the relief effort in Pakistan. "We needed the money yesterday," Mr Egeland told reporters. "We are amputating far too many limbs because of delays." He said doctors were being forced to amputate limbs from survivors that could have been saved if the victims were able to have been evacuated more quickly.—INP