Many quake survivors still cut off

By David Brunnstrom

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – The engineering
battalion promised by NATO to help reach untold numbers of
quake survivors in the rugged hills of northern Pakistan is
needed immediately, an international aid official said on
Saturday.

In another move aimed at easing the suffering of survivors
of the October 8 quake that killed more than 53,000 people,
India offered to set up three relief centers along a de facto
border dividing it from Pakistan in the Kashmir region.

Pakistan said it had sent India a proposal for five border
crossing points in disputed Kashmir, adding it hoped talks
could be held before the end of the month.

“The emphasis is on the need for road engineers. If we can
open the roads, that would solve everything,” World Food
Programme spokeswoman Mia Turner said, referring to NATO’s
move.

“More than 2,000 villages have to be reached and they have
to be reached by roads,” she said of the shattering earthquake
that wrecked the few roads which wound high into the hills.

“If these people were connected, we wouldn’t be carrying
stuff up and down mountains on mules,” she said as another
train of the animals set off up into the hills from a village
above the destroyed Pakistani Kashmir capital of Muzaffarabad.

Each mule can carry 100 kg (220 pounds), but like
everything else in the disaster zone, they are in short supply.

U.N. officials said more helicopters were needed to get
tents out before the harsh Himalayan winter descends.

“The top priority overall is tents and emergency shelter,”
U.N. coordinator Jan Vandermoortele said. “We need helicopters,
a lot of helicopters and all types of helicopters.”

The known death toll is expected to rise substantially,
with people laying buried in the rubble of cut-off villages.

More than 75,000 people are known to have been injured
seriously, and opening the roads would allow the many more in
cut-off villages to get medical treatment needed to survive.

The helicopter aid fleet, which Vandermoortele said had
only 50 operational at any one time, cannot deliver enough or
reach everywhere and pilots report villagers waving flags to
signal they needed help, Turner said.

Some were even trying to clear areas for helipads.

ROUND THE CLOCK

The Pakistani army is working around the clock to open
roads covered by landslides or swept away by the quake in
Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province.

Lieutenant-General Salahuddin Satti said he hoped the road
up Pakistani Kashmir’s Jhelum valley would be re-opened in a
week, but it would take six weeks for the nearby Neelum valley.

In some parts of Pakistani Kashmir, people are desperate
enough to fight each other for food aid or loot supply trucks.

Hopes of a massive airlift to bring survivors to safety
were dashed on Friday when NATO turned down a U.N. appeal.

The U.S.-dominated military alliance said it would send up
to 1,000 troops to help, but would not stage an airlift.

“It will help a lot,” Vandermoortele said, who, like other
aid officials complained the world was not doing enough. “But
we need more, we need much more, and we need it much faster.”

HELICOPTERS, TENTS

NATO will send only six more helicopters to join the 40
that members of the alliance have sent.

Helicopters are the only means of getting quickly deep into
the hills. The nearest are in India, where the quake killed
1,300 people, but it has fought two of its three wars with
Pakistan over Kashmir, which both claim.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had told India he
would accept helicopters, but only if they came without crews
given the enormous political sensitivity. India said no.

India’s offer to open relief centers came four days after
Musharraf appealed to India to allow survivors to cross the de
facto border in Kashmir to help deal with the catastrophe.

India welcomed the offer and said it was ready to discuss
details.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan had
handed India a proposal for five crossing points for two-way
movement along the border.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it was hoped
the two sides could talk before the end of the month when the
Indian offer of relief centers could also be discussed.

Musharraf has expressed disappointment the world had not
come forward with more pledges of money to rebuild the
shattered region, where the quake wiped out entire towns and
villages.

The United Nations has been pledged about a third of its
$312 million appeal for Pakistani relief, a U.N. official said.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said Pakistan would
need billions to rebuild.

An estimated 2 million or more people are homeless but
winter tents are scarce and Pakistan pleads daily for more.

An aid official said up to 540,000 tents were needed but
with global supplies limited, the relief operation could come
up 200,000 short.