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GENEVA, Oct 20: A top UN aid official said on Thursday he had appealed to Nato to launch a massive airlift to evacuate possibly hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors from remote areas of Pakistani Kashmir before winter sets in.
Jan Egeland, UN emergency relief coordiNator, would make his case for boosting the military alliance’s aid role at a Nato Council meeting in Brussels on Friday, officials said.
Mr Egeland also said the official death toll from the Oct 8 quake in northern Pakistan could double from 48,000, echoing local fears that it was set to soar.
“The emergency in Kashmir is becoming worse by the day as the extent ... dawns on us. The world is not responding as we should be,” Mr Egeland told a news conference in Geneva.
“We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare ever. We thought the tsunami was bad, this is worse,” he added, noting the quake had also left at least 67,000 people seriously injured and up to three million people homeless or without safe housing.
Mr Egeland said the relief effort was being complicated by differences between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region, including arguments over whether Indian helicopter pilots could fly aid missions into Azad Kashmir.
“These discussions are now holding up a bigger (relief) operation and they shouldn’t,” he said. “I would want them to work out a compromise immediately.”
BEYOND REACH: Donor countries have pledged only $86 million so far to a UN appeal for $272 million, which has been increased to $312 million for now, according to the senior UN official.
Large areas of the hard-hit rugged mountains of Azad Kashmir and the North-West Frontier Province have not been reached and no one knows how many more were killed in the high hills.
Mr Egeland said that “hundreds of thousands” of people remained beyond reach ahead of heavy snowfalls which could start before December. Although 60 helicopters are in operation, with 20 more about to join, many more aircraft and tents were needed.
The Norwegian called for matching a life-saving Western airlift operated in 1948-1949 to keep West Berlin supplied despite a blockade by the Soviet Union.
“If they could do that in the end of the 1940s, set up in no time a lifeline to millions of people, we should be able to do that in 2005,” he said.
“We are humanitarians, we don’t know how to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people in the Himalayas. But the most efficient military alliance in the world should be able to,” Egeland said.
In Kiev, Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Nato had flown many tonnes of goods into Pakistan since it began relief fights from Europe last week and it fully realised how serious the situation was.
Egeland’s request would be on the agenda of the council in Brussels, he added.
“You must rest assured that Nato fully realises the gravity of the situation and that within its means and capabilities, Nato will act accordingly,” de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.
LOC PROPOSAL: India said on Thursday it was still waiting for Pakistani proposals on how to allow Kashmiris to cross the de facto border that divides the Himalayan region.
Since welcoming President Pervez Musharraf’s suggestion of opening up the Line of Control (LoC) Tuesday, New Delhi has made no moves to allow Indian Kashmiris to cross over to aid stricken relatives.
The foreign ministry has asked Islamabad for concrete details of the plan and Indian officials say they are still waiting for a response.—Reuters/AFP
