WITH THE start of snowfall and gradual increase in the intensity of cold conditions, U.N. and other agencies apprehend that cold and hunger shall claim a very large number of lives amongst the survivors of the monumental tragedy of 8~’ October. Still, tens of thousands of people in otherwise inaccessible areas in the disaster zone could not receive any relief worth the name. Army, NGOs and international agencies are making last ditch efforts to rush supplies to survivors unwilling to leave their damaged homes on the mountains. With freezing weather getting almost intolerable, survivors in the hill top villages are beginning to descend to tent cities. Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan told U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on Thursday at Muzaffarabad that around 40,000 persons are likely to leave their homes in the hills to come and live in the tent cities. These facilities will accordingly come under tremendous pressure. Already, relief supplies are dwindling and tents in particular are in short supply. The survivors still in the hill top villages in Kaghan valley, Batagram, Allai and Mansehra areas are also coming down and pressure on tent cities in the Frontier’s devastated areas is mounting.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees who was appalled to see human miseries at this incredible scale called upon the world community to immediately actualize their commitments made at the 19`” November International Donors’ Conference. He rightly stated that the thousands of survivors would lose battle with their shattered lives if immediate help was not provided. The NGOs are doing a commendable job but the inclement weather is coming in their way. Besides, they are running short of relief goods. The relief effort desperately needs to be bolstered with a large number of young and daring young men who could deliver supplies to the survivors in difficult areas. The President has launched a volunteer corps of young workers and professionals and batches of these youth may be urgently deployed in various areas. The U.N. `s top official recalled Pakistan’s hospitality extended to millions of Afghan refugees and stated that the world community owed this debt and must repay quickly to stop cold and hunger from claiming more lives.
Meanwhile, debate on the nature of pledges made by the donors is continuing. While critics say that only one-third of 6 billion dollars promised assistance in the form of grants, the debt burden on Pakistan shall increase if the credit offered by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IDB, IMF, etc. is availed. However, most of the credit is repayable in 40 years and the terms are quite soft. The friendly countries continue to raise their commitments and Australian Prime Minister who visited quake areas earlier this week announced to provide another 37 million U.S. dollars grant for relief and rehabilitation. Australian teams shall also continue to handle relief work for another three months. U.S. and Britain have also raised their contributions. Owner-driven concept for reconstruction phase is being widely accepted and it is hoped the survivors would manage to rebuild their houses with enhanced compensation in a year’s time.

Sharon’s gamble

ARIEL SHARON has taken a huge gamble—the biggest of his career—by walking out of the Likud and forming his own party. Obviously, it is Sharon’s confidence in himself and the success of his disengagement policy that has emboldened the Israeli leader to take the extraordinary step that has not only left his own countrymen stunned but astounded the whole of Middle East and the world. Doubtless, this is a watershed event in Middle East politics, as important as the 1967 war with the Arabs or the Oslo accords with the Palestinians.
Sharon apparently believes he could carry his new centrist, pro-disengagement constituency with him wherever he goes. Sharon has convinced himself that a majority of Israelis are convinced of his strategic shift from the rabid right to the centrist position of Israeli politics. In quitting Likud, the party he had helped found, and forming his own National Responsibility party, Sharon has demonstrated that he is confident of popular support to his so-called disengagement policy.
Under siege within his own party from more rabid elements — if that were possible — in the Likud such as former Prime Minister Netanyahu for the past several months on the issue of Gaza withdrawal, Sharon evidently found it hard to take any more nonsense from the hardline party and coalition partner, Labour.
While it remains to be seen if this support for Sharon will translate itself into votes and necessary numbers in the Knesset to form his own government, there are reports of leading figures from the Likud and Labour planning to move to Sharon’s party.
In projecting his new party as centrist-liberal, instead of rightist conservative, Sharon is clearly seeking to fill the space between leftist Labour and extreme right Likud. However, it is not clear if after the dissolution of parliament, elections are held soon, Sharon’s party will be able to meet the necessary regulations of the election commission and field its candidates in time. But then the crafty politician and master strategist that he has always been, Sharon may have planned it all.
He had been known throughout his military and political career as the Jewish state’s biggest hawk only to abandon his original constituency to create a new one for himself at his own terms. Whatever the future of Sharon and his new party, no party or leader in Israel today can ignore the fact that there exists an overpowering craving for peace in the country, just as it does in rest of the region.
The ground swell of support for Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal move seen recently offers ample proof that not only the Palestinians, Arabs and the international community want the Israeli occupation to end but the majority of Israelis too are keen to resolve the bloody conflict that has plagued the region for more than half a century of bloody conflict. It’s thanks to this shift in popular mood that Labour’s new leader Amir Peretz, of Moroccan origins, is pushing for peace with the Palestinians and called for the creation of independent Palestine sooner than later. Let’s hope these dramatic developments are utilised by all parties to achieve lasting peace.

—Khaleej Times