Linda Waldron
At 8.52am (local Pakistan time) on October 8 an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan, north-west India and Pakistan. The worst-affected areas were in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
On November 2, United Press International reported that "UN officials have put the death toll from Pakistan's October earthquake at 73,000", with as many as 3.5 million people still in need of medical care and 3.2 million remaining homeless with winter approaching.
In an article posted on the Labour Party Pakistan's website <http://www.laborpakistan.org>, LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq reported that "after 17 days of the most disastrous earthquake in Pakistan, there are areas that no-one has yet reached to help the victims. That is mainly true of the Neelum Valley area, close to the so-called line of control that separates Kashmir into Indian- and Pakistani-held areas. Only helicopters are able to reach the area. The military is the only institution that controls all the helicopters. They simply do not have the helicopters required to bring relief to all the devastated villages.
"A two-member team from one private TV channel GEO accompanying a military relief helicopter in the Neelum Valley showed a glimpse of the plight of the villagers" on the night of October 25. "The villagers", Tariq wrote, "were begging, arguing, fighting, accusing and saying whatever they could say to the military officers to get some immediate relief to save the lives of their children who are not yet dead. One villager said, '17 days gone, we have no team reaching to our village. We have buried 80 from our village, many more are injured, but no help yet has reached the village'."
"Normally, three weeks after an earthquake, people are generally dead or they're OK", Rachel Lavy, the World Health Organisation official coordinating medical relief told New York Times correspondent David Rodhe on October 28. "But three weeks after this earthquake, we're still having severe injuries come in, open fractures, horrific infections, gangrene, tetanus."
The November 1 NYT reported that Pakistani officials said that half of the 564 hospitals and health clinics in the earthquake affected region were damaged or destroyed. It reported that Lavy said that roughly 40 clinics had been opened in northern Pakistan, but that at least 100 are needed, and it is unlikely they will have funds for more.
"To date", the NYT added, "the United States and other wealthy nations have pledged only 20 percent of the [US]$550 million the United Nations requested for Pakistan."
After the Indian Ocean tsunami hit Asian countries last December, 80% of the aid pledged by rich-country governments to the UN was realised in two weeks. So far Pakistan has received just 12% of the promised aid.
In the case of the tsunami, 4000 helicopters were made available by foreign countries for rescue operations, while Pakistan has received only 70. This is despite the fact that Pakistan is a key base for US military operations in Afghanistan.
While nearly one-third of Pakistan's annual budget is devoted to military expenditure, General Pervez Musharraf's dictatorship has failed to mobilise the Pakistani military's extensive equipment and resources to rescue the tens of thousands devastated by the earthquake. The main response from the military dictatorship has been to consider a temporary delay in a multi-billion-dollar buying spree of new and used US-made F16 fighter jets.
The token response of Western governments and the Pakistani military dictatorship has criminally exacerbated the scale of the catastrophe. By contrast, progressive organisations within Pakistan have immediately organised food and relief for earthquake victims in Kashmir and the NWFP.
An example of such working-class initiative is the Labour Relief Camp for Earthquake Victims. The LRCEV is a coalition of progressive organisations such as the Labour Education Foundation, the Women Workers Help Line, the Pakistan National Trade Union Federation and the LPP.
In the hours following the earthquake, the LRCEV established relief collection camps in Lahore, Karachi, Hyderabad (Sindh province), Mardan (NWFP) and Rawalpindi (Punjab province). The Lahore collection camp alone collected some half a million rupees (US$8300) in cash and donation of goods.
Within three days, the first truck loaded with medicines, food, baby feeders, blankets, tents and burial cloth was despatched to Balakot, a Himalayan hillside town of 20,000 people in which 90% of the houses were obliterated by the earthquake.
The LRCEV relief was the first assistance to reach the area, arriving five days after the earthquake. The LRCEV has established a local relief committee and is working with teams from China and the army to provide tents, food and medicines.
In the first two weeks after the earthquake struck, the LRCEV despatched nine truckloads of food, tents, medicine, blankets and clothes to affected areas. It set up a temporary office and a store in Paniola, a town with 2000 residents located 12 kilometres from Balakot. to coordinate the despatch of goods and relief. The LRCEV is also developing networks among different Pakistani relief organisations.
The LRCEV has begun building 100 new homes in Paniola. The local committees surveyed the villagers to establish who had the greatest need. Priority was given to women and the most impoverished local families. The local community donated land for the houses and the LPP will cover the cost of materials and construction. The villagers themselves are doing most of the construction and manual labour. Construction is expected to be completed by late November.
The housing project will cost an estimated 7 million rupees (US$117,000). The project is underwritten by Action Aid Pakistan and local and international donations to the LRCEV Earthquake Appeal.
From Green Left Weekly, November 9, 2005.
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