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Bleak Eid for quake survivors

Posted on: Friday, 4 November 2005, 07:54 CST

By Simon Cameron-Moore

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Nearly a month after Pakistan's catastrophic earthquake, President Pervez Musharraf said he was postponing the purchase of F-16 warplanes from the United States to provide more relief to quake victims.

Musharraf, visiting quake-hit regions on the Eid al-Fitr holiday on Friday, also said the world had not responded to the quake as generously as to last year's Asian tsunami because Western tourists weren't caught up in it.

"I am going to postpone that," Musharraf told reporters when asked about the purchase of the aircraft.

"We want to bring maximum relief and reconstruction effort," he said, while stressing that maintaining national security was also important.

The United States said last year it was willing to sell Pakistan F-16 fighters and Islamabad has been expected to buy about 80 of them.

Earthquake survivors had little to celebrate on the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the holy month of Ramadan nearly four weeks after more than 73,000 people were killed in the country's worst disaster.

People in predominantly Muslim Pakistan mark the holiday by dressing up in new clothes and visiting family and friends but there was little festivity at a tent camp for homeless survivors in the ruined city of Muzaffarabad.

"This Eid I have no clothes and no shoes but what matters most is this Eid my father is dead," said 10-year-old Sana, camped out at a tent village on a sports ground near the devastated university in the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

"I've lost everything. I don't know how many days I will sit here because everything is gone," said Sana, who was living with her mother and grandfather.

Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the 7.6 magnitude quake, which also seriously injured more than 69,000.

It was the strongest to hit South Asia in 100 years and left more than three million people in need of emergency shelter with a bitter Himalayan winter approaching.

There was further tragedy elsewhere in Pakistan on Friday when a ferry believed to have been overloaded sank in the south

while carrying people to a shrine. Officials said at least 60 people drowned in the disaster near the town of Keti Bandar.

Musharraf has called on people to celebrate Eid simply this year and make generous donations to help quake survivors.

"KEEP WATCH"

In an interview with Britain's BBC radio, Musharraf said he believed the earthquake had caused greater damage than last year's tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people.

"The tsunami -- I think if one compares it realistically -- I would think the damage here is much more. The magnitude of the calamity here is much more," Musharraf said.

International donors responded generously to the tsunami because "it affected people from many countries of the world, especially the West who were tourists in various areas."

"Here, unfortunately, this is a remote area, poor people affected. I would appeal to the world to see reality -- that it is these people who deserve aid much more."

Earlier, a prominent leader of an alliance of religious parties, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, led about 2,000 people in prayers on open ground near Muzaffarabad's university and said people had to be wary of foreign teams involved in earthquake relief.

"We need to keep a close watch on them and not allow them to work without supervision," said Qazi, who has a long white beard and was dressed in a brown cloak and lambskin hat.

Referring to up to 1,000 NATO troops who are due to help with earthquake relief, Qazi said: "They are actually coming not to help us but to look for al Qaeda in our distress."

"People talk about al Qaeda and accuse them of terrorism against humanity but the same people are doing nothing to stop injustice against Muslims."

Musharraf dismissed criticism of NATO, which he said had airlifted about 1,000 tonnes of aid. "Nobody else can lift this other than NATO. NATO is really assisting us," he said.

Musharraf, an important U.S. ally, also praised the work of U.S. forces who have provided helicopters for the relief effort and set up a field hospital on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad.

"I think this will go a long way to create a right kind of impression about American concerns for us, for people," he said.

Source: REUTERS

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