Bush Senior says Pakistan needs more aid for reconstruction
By Masood Haider
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6: Former US President George H. W. Bush said on Friday that he would do his best for fulfilment of financial pledges made by countries towards rehabilitation and reconstruction of Pakistan’s Northern areas devastated by the 2005 earthquake.
Addressing a press conference here on the first anniversary of the earthquake, Mr Bush asserted Pakistan would need continued help in meeting the needs of the people who have lost everything. Some of the sectors, especially water and sanitation, were under-funded, the former president pointed out.
Mr Bush was appointed the Special Envoy of the United Nations for the South Asian earthquake that killed 73,00O people and injured many more. It rendered 3.5 million people homeless in parts of Azad Kashmir and NWFP.
He paid tribute to the government and civil society of Pakistan for the determined manner in which the relief and reconstruction operations were conducted following last year’s disaster.
Mr Bush spoke after Pakistan’s Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar presented a detailed report on the progress made since the launch of the work to mitigate the sufferings of the victims.
The former US president who visited the quake-affected areas earlier this year, said he was honoured to be associated with the efforts to bring relief to tens of thousands of affected people. “I thank Secretary-General Kofi Annan for giving me the opportunity,” he said.
”With winter approaching and some of the areas already receiving snowfall, the elderly and children were at risk,” he added.
Asked whether he would go back to see the progress in the quake-affected areas, Bush said he had no immediate plans.
He said his mandate as the UN secretary-general’s special envoy would expire on January 1, 2007, but he would continue to do his bit for the affected people.
Earlier, Ms Khar said Pakistan had made great strides in rehabilitating people living in the affected areas and has been cited as a model for other countries. Pakistan relief operations were well co-ordinated.
She thanked the international community for the generous support in Pakistan’s hour of need, but said an additional $800 million was still needed for the rehabilitation and reconstruction work.
The international community pledged nearly $6.5 billion for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Replying to a question, the minsiter of state said that Pakistan would be able to take care of the 30,000 people still in camps if the winter this year became severe.
UNICEF: On Thursday, UNICEF launched an exhibition of children’s photos in New York to mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake.
The photographs were taken by 160 children from the region to document their lives following the disaster. Called EYE SEE II, the project was conceived to empower children who have returned to their villages.
“Thousands of children were impacted by the earthquake,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “This project has given children an opportunity to show us through photographs their experience of the earthquake and the impact it has had on their lives.”
Through the images, the children illustrated what they saw as the most important daily activities in their return to some semblance of normality. “Women of all houses daily go to fetch water. I saw my neighbour going to collect water and I took her photograph,” wrote one young participant.
The selected images that go on display today were chosen by an advisory board of world-class photographers from Pakistan and abroad. In written reviews of the photos, the experts were stunned at the professionalism and creativity considering this was the first time most of the children had ever held a camera.
“These children, the survivors of the earthquake, are not only living through the long healing process, but have now been able to share some of that through photography,” said Pulitzer Prize winning photographer and advisory board member John Moore. “Through the photographs, you can see their desire to return to a normal life, to recover what was lost, while still amidst the rubble of their communities.”
