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Post calls for more US choppers, aid to Pakistan

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The Washington Post on Friday urged President Bush to send another fleet of helicopters to Pakistan, expressing great concern over the approaching winter and the disastrous effect it would have on survivors.

The newspaper said one did not need sophisticated technology to predict that leaving thousands without shelter in the freezing Himalayas would be disastrous. “Unfortunately, however, predictability is not a predictor of action. With perhaps two weeks to go before snows close down the relief efforts that followed the Kashmir earthquake, it’s not clear that enough has been done to avert a horrific secondary disaster,” it pointed out.

The Post wrote, “Last month’s earthquake caused an initial death toll of at least 74,000 and left perhaps 3 million people homeless. But so far only about 340,000 tents have been distributed. Doctors are trying to immunise 1.2 million children put at risk by bad shelter, diet and sanitation. But the immunisation drive has only half the $8 million that it needs. Relief teams are trying to position stocks of food in remote villages before the snows come. But the food lift got underway belatedly, although donors led by the United States have provided helicopters.”

Referring to its correspondent’s eyewitness account of the devastation caused by the October 8 temblor, the newspaper pointed out that the contrast with the Indian Ocean tsunami is “distressing.” It recalled that after the tsunami, the United States sent nearly $1 billion in government aid, 16,000 soldiers, 57 helicopters, 42 other aircraft and 25 ships. After the Kashmir quake, the United States has offered Pakistan $156 million in aid, including military equipment; deployed 950 soldiers; and sent 24 helicopters. Aid that’s available for immediate relief needs has been especially slow in coming. The United Nations has appealed for $550 million in emergency aid, but donors have pledged only $159 million, the editorial said.

The tsunami, the leading article, emphasised, triggered a “tsunami of generosity” because it hit during the holiday season and because Western tourists were affected. “But the logistics of getting relief into the Himalayas are more daunting; the weather is more punishing. While no deaths were linked to disease and hunger following the tsunami, the risk of an after-disaster in Kashmir is real. Add in Pakistan’s two-headed role as an ally in the war on terrorism and an incubator of terrorists, and the case for scoring a combined humanitarian-foreign policy success by delivering more relief faster should be obvious. President Bush has sent Karen Hughes, his chief of public diplomacy, to Pakistan. But sending another fleet of helicopters would be even more helpful,” the editorial urged.

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