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| Sunday, 23 October 2005 |
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Choppers failing to reach Pakistan quake victims PAKISTAN, (AFP) Massive cargo helicopters from the US and Pakistani militaries kick up clouds of dust in a herculean effort to deliver relief goods to millions left homeless after Pakistan's massive October 8 earthquake. But a simple appeal scribbled on a page of a torn notepad offers a glimpse of the nightmarish conditions the survivors and injured are still facing - urgent help has not arrived two weeks after the powerful quake that flattened their homes and many of them are dying. "Our village is too far from the road. There are no facilities left. All the houses are destroyed and finished. Please help us. There in our village many people are dead and injured. "No help has reached us in Shakrian village," says the note handed to passing vehicles by a man who said he walked for days to reach the highway near the town of Ghari Dhopatta, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Muzaffarbad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir which bore the brunt of the devastation. He points to the upper regions of the mountain range when asked where Shakrian is, exhausted from his effort. "Please relay the message," he says. Taking off from an army stadium converted into a relief operations base in Muzaffarabad, the helicopters complete about 100 daily sorties delivering food and aid to upland areas inaccessible by road. But while tons of food and medicine and other goods keep pouring in, relief agencies and non-government organizations say logistical problems are hampering the effort to bring help to hundreds of destroyed villages. "We only have several helicopters being shared for medical missions and to deliver necessities," says Olivier Moeckli, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Many distribution centers are also disorganized and overwhelmed, and the key now is how to quickly bring relief supplies to the homeless and injured before they die of hypothermia or infections from diseases. "That remains an issue," says Moeckli, adding that the fleet of 60 to 80 helicopters was simply not enough for distribution. The situation remains dire two weeks after the earthquake, which the Pakistani government said has killed over 50,000 and injured 74,500. More than three million men, women and children were also rendered homeless, their houses crushed to the ground. India has also said that the October 8 earthquake killed more than 1,300 people and injured more than 5,000 in its part of divided Kashmir. |
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