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Kashmir And Survival of Earthquake Victims

Amit Pyakurel - 11/20/2005

The Kashmiri province that adjoins both India and Pakistan woke up to the grim reality of the ever catastrophic earthquake in the history. The suffering will be shared by rivals, India and Pakistan. Pakistan 73,000 dead and the similar number, more than 69,000 injured. The death toll from the Indian side is about 1,300. The calamity has left many others homeless, compelling them to live under the open sky through the cold, shivering nights of winter, risking more vulnerable lives with the increasing pace of chilly gust of the mountains.

Many of the dead and injured happened to be the children because they were in the midst of their lessons inside their schools at the time of the quake, and the big buildings collapsed upon them giving very little chance to escape, turning the classrooms into the mass graves, leaving them helpless at the ugly face of this natural calamity. Furthermore, many surviving children suffered a life changing experience by this disaster as they had never seen such a grimness in their lifetime and many are orphaned and they have to bear this wound for the rest of their life.
According to the estimation of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at U.N. World Headquarters in New York, about 3.2 million lost their homes and 3.2 to 3.5 million need immediate medical care. The OCHA spokesperson, Kristen Knutson told the United Press International (UPI) that the organization is struggling to make out from this disaster and still making initial access for many needies and it needs ongoing access to those already reached to sustain the victims. She further clarified that the OCHA is still not getting enough help to makeover from the situation.
In an effort to comfort the situation, the donor’s conference on aid for South Asia earthquake victims was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 26th, with more than 400 participants from 92 member states of the United Nations and members of the international humanitarian agencies, which could have some positive impact on helping to receive more effective aid measures by getting the attention of the donors closer to the situation.
Reciprocating to the conference Knutson added to her remarks, “We need support from donor countries to maintain operations. We are hoping we will have a breakthrough. There is a lot of support out there and a lot of it is through pre-established bi-lateral channels.”
The effect of the disaster can go much farther, being not only limited to the emergency need of food, shelter, or medical care but the psychological trauma experienced by the leftover victims who have lost their near and dear ones is hard to fade away and their lives would take much time to rehabilitate, indeed the grief would remain to them throughout their life span.
The long term healing process will definitely take its time, but the earnest need at this moment is to reach out to the victims for the physical aids or the most urgent needs, such as tents, blankets, food materials, and medicines. And, this has seemed to be more difficult regarding the most of the affected zones are far from the reach of any transport vehicles being the hilly region and many of the remaining roads have also been disrupted by the huge landslides.
The United Nations general secretary Kofi Annan has urged international communities that the aides in the earthquake disaster zones are not sufficient and pleaded for a more help. The onset of the chilling winter and the lack of proper sanitation which would help spreading of the possible pandemic could be the cause of the huge aftermath disaster, so he persuaded the donors to focus their attention on these issues.
The donor countries have managed to provide the helicopters to reach out to these places, which is also not a cakewalk as its difficult even to fly in these regions due to the grave weather conditions. At least, the helicopters for reaching out the most needy vicitms have proved to be a reliable alternative than having nothing at all. As the intense winter is ascending the risk of more deaths is evident in the lack of basic protection like tents and warm clothes. So, the donors should priorities on providing such equipments to prevent the possible aftermath disaster or a could-be-tackled situation.
While looking the other way round, the quake has somehow maintained a significance on the warmness of the relationship between the India and Pakistan since the bitter history of reprisals between these two rivals. Both the governments relaxed their border restriction on the Kashmiri province by agreeing to open the Line of Control and India also aided manless helicopters to the Mussaraf’s government to help relief the Pakistani victims. Let’s hope this calamity to be paved for the historical cause to erose the enemity between these countries by solving the age-long Kashmir conflict.
The disaster could also be a message to the humankind that how vulnerable we are in front of nature and the national boundaries is regardless when the humanity itself is in danger. The solidarity shown by the Kashmiris from the both sides of the nations is the proof of that. Many Kashmiris from the Indian and Pakistani sides share the relationships of their friends and relatives opposite to the border line, and their national boundaries haven’t prevented them to maintain their brotherhood irrespective of the partition of the region.
Zalikha Begum, an elderly woman, addressing to her kith and kins in the Indian province, said she too had been marooned on the Pakistani side by the quake. “I have many relatives here. I don’t want to go back but I have to. My house was destroyed and my brother’s too. They are living in the open,” she said.
Another fellow, a 72-year-old Attaullah Khawaja, residing in the Indian side who came over to know the condition of his family at the other side (Pakistani province) remarked, “I came. I was very happy. I saw all the family but after the earthquake they are living in a very bad situation. It is a very sad moment for me”.
The neighboring south Asian countries have agreed to open five crossings on the militarised Line of Control to exchange relief goods, but letting the people across haven’t been seen so easy. Meanwhile, the UN wants to see the ceasefire line opened to its own aid trucks, saying it could save thousands of lives in the isolated mountainous regions on the Pakistani side. The two sides must agree on this to frequent the relief fronts to benefit the most remote residents and the world community, in fact, every international humanitarian organization or any capable individuals, should lend their hands to fight this terrible suffering of the humankind from this unanswerable natural disaster.