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The
massive earthquake that struck near the Pakistan-India
border on 8 October had caused a widespread devastation,
triggering a horrible humanitarian catastrophe. North
western Pakistan was the hardest hit - where before
there were cities, roads, hospitals and schools now the
only things left are rubbles. It is breaking my heart to
find out that the tragedy has affected also a lot of
Kashmir-born people working in our organization, with
many of them loosing most of their families and houses.
The official death toll stands at over 80,000 but it is
feared that without rapid intervention this figure could
double in the next few weeks.
Like in any disaster, it is
the children who are affected the most. Half of those
killed are likely to be children, and at least 1.6
million children have been left homeless, many of whom
live in the most inaccessible and impoverished areas in
the region.
According to the
UN, the shortfall in aid for victims of the South Asian
quake has made the relief situation worse than after
last December's tsunami and
UN emergency relief chief, Jan Egeland, stated that the
organisation had never seen such a "logistical
nightmare".
I was following Mr Egeland’s speech in Geneva, who said that
the quake situation was becoming worse by the day and
that most of the remote areas are still out of reach.
And according to the current situation (at the moment I
write), only $267million had been pledged of the $1.064
billion promised, which would help the UN to fund the
relief operations - and far less actually received in
hard cash. He added: “This is not enough. We have never
had this kind of logistical nightmare ever. We thought
the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse."
The tsunami, which struck Southeast Asia on 26 December last
year, killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian
Ocean. And while donations of money and assistance have
been pouring in to international aid agencies from
governments and individuals in the wake of the tsunami,
totaling more than $US 7 billions, this time it seems
that the international community is not doing enough to
help the earthquake victims in Kashmir. Why is that?
Aren’t all people on our planet equal?
The UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan made several appeals for the global
relief effort to be increased to help the three million
people made homeless by the quake, which now are facing
the fierce Himalayan winter without shelter.
Some of the helicopters flying aid to Pakistani
earthquake victims could be grounded in a week by a cash
crisis, United Nations officials have warned. The air aid and other relief measures will have to be scaled back
unless donors send more cash, and send it fast!
I wish to quote the UN emergency coordinator Jan
Vandemoortele, who stated: "Frankly, I don't know how to
say this any more clearly in plain English. It's now or
never. We will not have a second chance.
Progress is being made. However people in the valleys
remain unreached, the terrain is making it a logistical
nightmare to sustain the support. The scarcest commodity
at this time is time. The weather is against us, winter
is closing in. We have to quicken the pace and we have
to scale up the action on the ground,"
In an interview with The BBC the Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf called the amount of aid pledged so far
"totally inadequate". He mentioned that so far about
$620millions (at the time of the interview) had been
promised but that Pakistan needed about $5billions to
rebuild the totally devastated areas.
So, let’s analyze the contributions that are made so far. I
am sure that the public will be shocked that so many
rich governments have given so little.
On first place, I would like to mention that India,
Pakistan's longtime bitter rival, had offered
$US25million cash aid, in addition to the humanitarian
and logistic aid that was offered immediately after the
disaster. I also would like to say that the way the
government of India has handled the disaster in a
neighboring country has gained much admiration.
Unfortunately, so
far, the UN has received just above 20 per cent of the
funds it needs for the six-month emergency period. Only
four countries - Sweden, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and
Denmark - have so far given more than what Oxfam terms
"their fair share", a calculation based on the relative
size of a country's economy.
Also according to the Oxfam figures, governments that have
given less than one-fifth of their fair share include
Japan (17per cent of its share), Germany (14per cent),
the US (9per cent) and Italy (7per cent).
Britain, with pledges so far total of $US17.5million, is
judged to have met 80per cent of its share.
Seven rich-country governments have so far contributed very
little to the UN appeal.
They were named as Austria, Belgium, Finland, France,
Greece, Portugal and Spain. Belgium, however, denied it
had given nothing, and said it was releasing a further
$US1million for the aid effort, bringing its total
contribution to $US3million. Spain said it was sending
370 troops to assist with humanitarian relief.
Most of the Gulf
States - that includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar
and Oman have made high financial promises in supports
of the efforts to help the earthquake victims in the
affected areas.
UAE has pledged
US$ 100 millions, but it is not only the cash
contribution that matters at the wake of the disaster.
The UAE government has set up a 100-bed field hospital
in Balakot, which is being run jointly by the UAE armed
forces, doctors and other paramedic staff. The hospital
has so far treated hundreds of injured. On his recent
visit to the hospital, the Pakistani President Musharaf
has expressed his gratitude to the people of the UAE for
their contributions for the quake- affected people.
I wish to call on all countries of the international
community not to ignore the appeals of the helpless
victims, the UN and the rest of the world’s humanitarian
organizations and donate their fair share in order to
prevent a real humanitarian catastrophe. The time is
running out, the weather conditions in the affected area
are getting worse by the day and 3 million people there
are without shelter, food or clean water, simply left on
the mercy of Mother Nature. As Mr. Vandemoortele
already said: “It’s now or never”!
Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor | 
