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A common lament: "Disasters are occurring in areas already in conflict"
Against the backdrop of the Himalayas, the effects of the earthquake are still all too apparent in Balakot. Many of the survivors of the disaster remain in tents, and numerous signs of destruction are still visible.
Photo: Chris Herlinger/Church World Service
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By Chris Herlinger/CWS
ISLAMBAD, Pakistan -- Negotiating the roads in Pakistini-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan's North West Frontier Province is not easy. The occasional landslide still slows traffic to a crawl and road construction eight months after a devastating earthquake last October is still a common sight. Mountainsides - once fully green - are scared with the detritus of rocks, fallen mountainsides and collapsed villages.
For villagers who must trek back across this still-striking landscape to reclaim land and communities, these are hard times. The October earthquake killed some 80,000 people and uprooted some 3.3 million others, affected a considerable area (30,000 square kilometers) and is believed to have destroyed 600,000 homes; now survivors face months, if not years, of struggle in a country where nearly 90 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
Monsoon season arrives soon, and there's no guarantee that this past winter's mild winter weather will be repeated.
Recently I spoke to some of the survivors of the quake. Some were from the small community of Naran and had relocated to a displacement camp near Balakot City, the epicenter of the quake and once a destination for tourists about to embark on treks to the nearby Himalayas.
After the initial shock of finding and burying friends, family and other loved ones, they had trekked down to Balakot, which lies in a deep and now partially leveled and scared valley, and had found shelter and support - some of it provided by US humanitarian agencies. Grateful for the assistance - and pleased, they said, all in all, with the government response to the disaster - they were nonetheless apprehensive about the future. Their camp was coming down soon and a key means of their livelihood, their cattle, had been lost in the quake. Uncertainty buzzed around them.
The story was much the same in Camp Maira on the Indus River, at the foot of the Himalayas, which was in the last stages of operations. Only 95 of the 3,000 families who had been there at the height of operations were still at the camp - to some extent stranded, not sure when they would return to their communities.
Still, the disaster operation had been deemed a success by an army commander who had overseen operations at the camp and is slated later this year to receive one of his government's top honors for his work. "If you provide people with education and food, why should there be terrorism or killings?" he asked rhetorically to a group of American and European visitors recently, noting with particular pride what had been provided for the disaster survivors during their stay: clean water, free schools and the like - something they often don’t have in their own communities.
The colonel's question has particular poignancy in Pakistan - where an unpopular military government rules with a firm hand, where corruption is endemic, and where the burden of nearly everything - the nation's debt service, low-intensity warfare and natural disasters - is borne by the poor.
Something of the distance between ruler and ruled is captured by both poignant anecdote - government assistance was provided in the form of checks in a country where most don't have access to bank accounts - and in a recent report by the International Crisis Group, which criticized the Pakistan government for its response to the disaster. The report urged the international community to use its influence to support civilian control of the government-led effort, promote regional peace and counter the influence of radical Islamic groups, which it says, threaten domestic and regional security.
Hovering in the background of all this, of course, is the reality of the US-led "war of terror" and Pakistan's role as a key US ally. Those having survived the quake are keenly aware of the politicization of relief assistance - the radical Islamic groups ran operations in camps run by the military (which also witnessed US government assistance running side by side with efforts by Cuban medical teams) - and it was certainly no secret that the US-supported Pakistan military was trying its best to burnish its tarnished image in the face of the increased popularity of radical Islam - hardly a surprise, given the desperation of everyday life in Pakistan.
The exigencies of the "War on Terror" have eclipsed all else, said one veteran Pakistani humanitarian worker, who said the realities of post 9/11 humanitarian work are frustrating at best, grim at worst.
"These are the realities globally: disasters are occurring in areas already in conflict, where poverty is endemic, and are logistically challenging," the worker said, recalling a recent visit to Pakistan's mountainous areas
"The war on terror," the worker said, pausing. "Right now, nothing else matters."
(Chris Herlinger, a communications officer for Church World Service, was recently on assignment in Pakistan.)
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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