Sekaligus langkah maju untuk menyelesaikan masaalah Kashmir
secara damai..
On 18 Oct 2005, at 18:30, hadjar_wish wrote:
Open up Kashmir, Pakistan urges
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has offered to open the Line of
Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir to help families find loved ones after
the earthquake. "We will allow any amount of people coming across...
to meet relatives and assist with reconstruction," he said.
He was speaking in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
India welcomed the plan, saying it backed greater movement across the
LoC. Both sides are to improve phone links to allow Kashmiris to call
relatives.
More than 40,000 people are confirmed dead in the 8 October
earthquake, most of them in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir and have fought two wars over it
since independence, but began peace talks last year.
We will allow every Kashmiri to come across the Line of Control and
assist in the reconstruction effort President Musharraf
Meanwhile, Pakistan has banned the export of tents as relief teams
struggle to provide shelter for quake victims, particularly those
stranded in remote mountain valleys. An estimated 1.5m tents are
required.
The United Nations says about 500,000 people have yet to see any help.
It has so far received just 5% of the money it says it needs to fund
its relief operation - about $13m has arrived following an emergency
appeal for $272m, with a further $50m promised.
Aid pledge
President Musharraf's proposal - after touring the ruins of
Muzaffarabad, close to the epicentre of the quake - was the latest in
a series of initiatives that have arisen from the earthquake disaster.
Kashmiris, he said, should be able to cross at points other than the
road between Srinagar on the Indian side and Muzaffarabad on the
Pakistani side, the existing transit route in the region.
'WINTERISED' TENT
Heavy duty tent designed for long-term use by a single family
PVC groundsheet sown onto the sides for wind proofing and to retain
warmth Some types are designed to accommodate cooking stoves ICRC
estimates that 30,000 such tents are required in Pakistan
"If India agrees, we would like to work out the formalities."
As far as aid went, Gen Musharraf said he hoped that people would
receive most of what they need within two to three weeks.
He proposed that political leaders on both sides should interact to
"assist each other with the reconstruction efforts".
The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says that opening up the Line
of
Control could make a huge difference to the relief effort.
Our correspondent says that in Kashmir and elsewhere in Pakistan there
has been much anger directed at President Musharraf's government after
an Indian offer to deliver aid in Indian helicopters foundered because
Pakistan insisted on the pilots being Pakistani.
India, which has flown several planeloads of relief to Pakistan, was
swift to welcome Gen Musharraf's proposal.
"This is in line with India's advocacy of greater movement across the
LoC for relief work and closer people-to-people contacts," foreign
ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna.
"India is willing to facilitate such movements but we await word from
Pakistan about the practical details of implementing this intention."
India says that on Monday it offered to supply medicines and other
materials directly across the Line of Control in areas where Indian
troops could get to quake victims more easily than Pakistani troops.
Weather fears
Earlier on Tuesday, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it was
facing one of the toughest challenges it had ever faced - and time was
running out for survivors.
HOW TO DONATE
Unicef
UNHCR
Disasters Emergency Committee (UK)
World Food Programme
Kashmir International Relief Fund
Red Cross/ Red Crescent
"The aid agencies have managed to give some help to hundreds of
thousands of people," WFP executive director James Morris said. "But
there are an estimated half a million more people out there in
desperate need, who no one has managed to reach."
According to the UN, more than three million people have been left
homeless. Pakistan says it needs thousands of special winterised tents
from abroad to house families living in the open.
Improved weather on Tuesday meant that helicopters resumed operations
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Soldiers used mules to reach victims living in steep villages along
some of the region's remote valleys where no medical help is
available.
A doctor in the town of Balakot in North West Frontier Province told
the BBC that an eight-year-old girl was brought to his medical team 10
ten days after the quake.
He said she was severely dehydrated and unconscious. She had been
trapped under rubble and given up for dead, the doctor said. But
later, when the rubble was being cleared, she was found.
Aid agencies and correspondents say the need for more helicopters
remains the most urgent priority in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Local officials in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir say the toll may be as
high as 54,000. In Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say 1,400
people were killed.
* Many roads in the affected area are damaged and/or impassable
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4353924.stm
Published: 2005/10/18 17:40:27 GMT
© BBC MMV
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