WASHINGTON, Nov 9: Holding little lamps and praying silently, hundreds gathered around Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday evening to remember those killed in the Oct 8 earthquake in Pakistan and to pledge their support to the survivors.
They quietly peeled off one layer of clothing to sympathize with hundreds of thousands of survivors braving the Himalayan winter without warm clothes.
“We must act now to beat the terrible winter setting on the survivors,” said Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who also has sent a letter, signed by several lawmakers, to President Bush asking him to double US assistance to the earthquake victims.
Similar vigils were held in more than 25 cities around the world to mark the one-month anniversary of the earthquake.
“We cannot afford not to act in urgency,” said Ms Lee who is leaving for Pakistan later this month with a congressional delegation to visit the quake-hit areas to try and refocus the world’s attention on the disaster. “We are not and we shall not be silent,” she said.
She urged people around the world to “link up arms to bring hope to the survivors so that they can live too.”
Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council, reminded the audience that the earthquake has also left 45,000 orphans who need to be taken care of.
“Towns like Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Tangrial have turned into graveyards,” said Mr Fai. “Now is the time for the international community to act.”
Dr Farhad Najam of the Operation Heartbeat –- one of the first US-based groups to send doctors team to earthquake ravaged areas –- made an urgent appeal for volunteer doctors and funds.
He said the Pakistan government has requested the group to set up more camps in Azad Kashmir where they have been able to open up more roads into the difficult terrains and mountain valleys of Kashmir.
Farhana Khaira, of S-A-Quake-dot-org, which organized the worldwide vigils, said while the earthquake was a natural disaster, the failure to act promptly could cause a manmade disaster in the affected areas.
Raza Latif of Open DC, another US-based group, said he realized that most of those attending the vigil had already donated to various earthquake funds. “But please dig deeper into your pockets and keep on giving. The survivors need your support,” he said. At University of Florida, Gainesville, participants watched a short film detailing the devastation of the disasters.
Aisha Khan, president of the Pakistani Student Association, who lost seven family members to the earthquake, regretted that there’s a lack of support for victims like her family members. And she said the American media and apathy are to blame. “They just don’t care,” she said. “The attitude is, ‘it’s not in my backyard, so it’s not my problem.’”
At Stanford University in California, more than a dozen signs were taped in a circle around a fountain in the Old Union courtyard, displaying statistics and pictures of the earthquake. In California, vigils were also held in small towns such as Palo Alto, Fremont and Berkeley.
S-A-quake.org is also distributing a petition among US citizens urging them to lobby the government to support the demand for helicopters for reaching the survivors
Our Correspondent adds from New York: At the Union Square, in New York about 500 people came holding candles to remember those who lost lives in the earthquake.
In Hartford, Connecticut more than 150 people showed up similarly in Chicago around 150 people turned up for the vigil.
