ISLAMABAD, 19 December 2005 — Harsh winter may cause unrest and fighting among survivors of the Oct. 8 earthquake who are living in camps, warned a UN official yesterday. The UN aid coordinator for quake-hit Pakistan said that the onset of snow and rain could cause clashes in overcrowded camps, but insisted winter preparations were in place and appealed anew to donors to keep sending money.
Jan Vandemoortele, the UN’s humanitarian aid coordinator, accompanied Nafis Sadiq, special adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and media mogul Ted Turner on a tour of Muzaffarabad’s camps, where survivors of the Oct. 8 monster quake huddled around wood cooking fires as night temperatures dropped well below freezing.
They also visited Chakothi, a town along the heavily militarized Line of Control that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India. “We are preparing ourselves for the worst, because it could be ugly,” Vandemoortele said.
He said camps had to be properly organized “because people will be very unhappy.”
“There will be lots of frustrations that could easily boil up into a bit of unrest, a bit of fighting,” he said. “This is what happens if you are not prepared, if you are cold and wet.
“It will not be pleasant, but we have people in place there, material in place to move and fix the problem,” he said. “So far, we are very lucky. A day like today is a blessing, because helicopters are flying, trucks are rolling, people are being helped, but we need to be ready for the winter.
“We also need to be ready for inadequacies and gaps in the relief effort, and I think we are ready for that.” Turner, who helped found the private charity called the UN Foundation, praised “the indomitable spirit of the Pakistani people,” and said he was surprised to see how much cleanup work has been done since the quake.
He said he was “highly impressed” by the Pakistani Army’s relief work, especially the distribution of aid and shelter material to survivors living on mountaintops. The army has used iron and steel sheets to build more than 65,000 shelters at high elevation.
An estimated 87,000 people were killed in the 7.6-magnitude quake and about 3.5 million were left homeless. Since then, many survivors have been living in about 40 overcrowded camps, while others have stayed in their wrecked villages.
“I have never seen anything like this. I have never seen so much damage,” Turner told reporters after landing in Muzaffarabad by helicopter.
“It’s only been 60 days, (and people) are starting to rebuild, shops are open. They have done an amazing amount of work in coordination to make the progress they have made,” he said, wearing his trademark cowboy hat.
About 200 quake survivors in the riverside Camp Thuri gathered to listen to Turner, who told them “you’re doing such a good job here, it makes my heart feel good to see that amongst all the wreckage that so much good is coming out. “It makes me proud to be a human being,” he said.
The UN Foundation so far has contributed $1 million to the UN’s flash appeal of about $550 million, specifically for temporary shelters for the homeless.
As of now, the UN said that donors’ commitments and contributions stood at more than $228 million, or about 41 percent of overall requirements. A further $20 million has been pledged, which would bring the funding for the appeal to 45 percent.
