ISLAMABAD, 18 November 2005 — United Nation’s Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched an international appeal to governments and donors to give generously to help millions of Pakistanis rebuild lives and homes destroyed by last month’s devastating earthquake.
In joint press conference yesterday with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Annan said billions of dollars are required to help Pakistan recover from the Oct. 8 earthquake, adding that in the donors’ conference, to be held tomorrow, he would be raising the issue of early availability of funds needed to help 3.5 million people needing immediate relief.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest man Bill Gates too is expected to visit Pakistan soon, according to a highly placed source. The source said Gates has indicated to the government that his companies would be a willing partner in the reconstruction of Kashmir.
Despite killing 73,000 people in Pakistan and about 1,300 in India, the disaster has failed to elicit the same outpouring of support from the world community as the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina did earlier this year.
“We received some resources, but need much, much more to be able to help the people,” Annan said on arrival in Pakistan for an international donors’ conference. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other lenders, representatives from foreign governments, including India, as well as corporate leaders, will attend the conference.
The meeting will focus on the long-term task of reconstruction and rehabilitation. The estimated cost for rebuilding roads, housing, schools, hospitals and the civil administration, and restoring people’s livelihoods in Pakistan is put at $5.2 billion.
Yet, so far, Pakistan has had just over $300 million pledged toward these tasks. “I would expect the world, those with capacity, to give generously and give willingly, and I’m not just speaking to the governments but also to the private sector and individuals who can contribute,” Annan said.
US President George Bush, in a telephone call from South Korea, where he is attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, promised President Pervez Musharraf that he would help raise awareness of Pakistan’s plight. Annan, who had warned that there could be a second wave of death unless the world woke up to the scale of the disaster, said more lives would have been saved if aid had arrived faster.
But the United Nations has been criticized too. US goodwill envoy Karen Hughes said this week on a visit to Pakistan that the United Nations could be doing more, and aid group Oxfam reckoned that the UN lacked manpower on the ground.
“We need a huge upscaling of the UN response,” said Ben Phillips, South Asia policy coordinator for Oxfam, told Reuters. “Our main criticism is of the donors for not giving enough money and of the UN for not sending in enough people,” he said.
Annan said some lives might have been saved if all the resources required to cope with the disaster had been available from the outset and it had been easier to funnel them into the remote and often inaccessible area.
“If we had been able to get all the resources, didn’t have the logistical challenges that we have, some of the people that died may have been saved but it wasn’t as bad as could have happened,” he said.
Annan said devastated areas must be rebuilt so they could cope with another such quake. “I hope we are going to rebuild better houses ... not just build what was before, but build it in a manner that can withstand, God forbid, another disaster, if it does come,” he said.
— Additional input from agencies.
