India Delays Quake Border Crossing and Disease Spreads
Date: 11-Nov-05
Country: PAKISTAN
Author: Zeeshan Haider
India said the crossing into Pakistan's hard-hit Neelum Valley, which it earlier said would open on Thursday, had been put off until Saturday because the Pakistani army had not finished work on a border bridge.
But a Pakistani spokesman said his side was ready and frustration was growing with Indian "rigidity" over the border crossings.
The old rivals last month agreed to open five points along their de facto Kashmir border, known as the Line of Control (LOC), on Nov. 7 under a plan to let quake survivors from divided families meet and to facilitate the flow of aid.
But India, citing logistical problems, opened only one point on Monday and another on Wednesday.
The Oct. 8 quake killed over 73,000 people in Pakistan, most of them in Pakistani Kashmir, and more than 1,300 in Indian Kashmir.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless after the quake and, with many mountain roads still blocked by landslides, aid has yet to reach many in remote areas on the Pakistani side.
Although two border crossings have opened, there have been only symbolic exchanges of relief goods and no civilians have yet been able to cross as paperwork that Pakistan says India is demanding for people to travel has yet to be completed.
The United Nations wants to see the ceasefire line opened to allow for movement of trucks it says could save thousands of lives in remote communities on the Pakistani side, but the two sides have yet to agree to this.
"We are ready at Titwal. Our bridge is ready," said Pakistani military spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, referring to the crossing from the Indian village of Titwal into the Neelum valley.
"I think the people are frustrated. The purpose was not really to exchange goods, the purpose wasn't symbolic. We don't want to get into this symbolism," he said.
"LET PEOPLE MEET"
Sultan said there was an abundance of aid on the Pakistani side. The main point of the openings was to allow people to cross to meet and ensure families on the other side were all right.
"The purpose of the opening up of the LOC was basically to allow the people to meet, to allow the people to interact."
"That purpose hasn't yet been met. I think the purpose has been lost just because of the rigidity from the other side," he said, referring to India.
The neighbours have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. The LOC marks their positions at the end of their first war.
Families that happened to be apart at the time have remained divided since, although a small number of people were able to cross after the launch of a fortnightly bus service in April that has had to be suspended because of the quake.
Aid officials warn that with winter fast approaching, time is running out on the worst-hit Pakistani side and thousands of survivors without shelter could die.
Funds are also running short while acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, dysentery and tetanus, are spreading.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) official said 200 cases of acute watery diarrhoea had been diagnosed at one of many tent camps in Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
"It is a situation we need to be concerned about," said the WHO official, Rachel Lavy. "These spontaneous camps which have spread all around the city are not ideally managed or set up, so it is almost inevitable that diarrhoea will develop."
Health Minister Mohammad Naseer Khan denied reports cholera had broken out and said there had been no outbreaks of any other epidemic. There was also no shortage of medicines, he said.
But with light rain falling over the disaster zone, Khan said the damp weather was likely to cause more respiratory problems, including asthma.
"We are doing well but we have a huge task to tackle. The game is not over. The uphill task is to revive the primary healthcare service," Khan told a n
