US trade delegation, goodwill envoy reaches Quake-hit Azad Kashmir
PakistanTimes.net Foreign Desk Report

MUZAFFARABAD (AJK): US goodwill envoy Karen Hughes and three of America's top business reached Muzaffarabad on Monday to see first hand the urgent need for more aid.

The delegation was sent by U.S. President George W. Bush to raise awareness of the scale of the suffering and acute need for shelter, food, sanitation and health care in the mountains of Kashmir as winter closes in on the region.

"People in America care very much about the girls and boys and people of Pakistan and that's why you have probably seen some of the helicopters trying to bring help," Hughes, a former Sunday school teacher, told two seven-year-old girls as she sat crossed-legged with them.

UN to launch Airlift

Meanwhile, the United Nations this week launch a major air operation to ferry food and other supplies to earthquake survivors high in Pakistan's mountains in frantic bid to beat the problems of winter.Britain has supplied three Chinook transport helicopters that will fly up to 200 tones of supplies a day into the mountains from today, Tuesday for five days, said senior U.N. official Pat Duggan.

"The deliveries are really gearing up now," Duggan told in Muzaffarabad on Monday."The real priority is the highlands. The aim is to get their food and shelter needs in as fast as we possibly can before winter sets in and then avoid a flow of people down the hill."

The most pressing problem area is the Neelum Valley, to the northeast of Muzaffarabad, where the sole road up the steep-sided valley has been swept away by landslides triggered by the quake. It won’t expect to be rebuilt before winter.

The valley, with a population of about 150,000 people, will be the focus of this week's air-lift, being organised with the help of the Pakistan's military, which Duggan said would give the aid effort a big boost.

"We've got an extra resource. We've got the Chinooks from the British government to work solid while the rest of the operation is still going on."It's a huge acceleration in our ability to cover the needs in these areas. It gives us a great boost to meet this end of November, beginning of December time frame," she said.

"The idea is to have pre-positioning of food as close as possible to them and pre-position some shelter as well. That will keep them more or less in their area and stop a flow down to Muzaffarabad," she said.

Worried over situation in Allai

At the same time, the United Nations has expressed worry on the situation prevailing in quake-hit valley of Allai fearing more deaths in the area.

UN humanitarian affairs coordination office at Buttgram has warned of more deaths in the quake zone if more relief supplies not reached to the area. Women and children are more vulnerable segments of the population, it said.

About half of the October 8 quake shelter-less still fighting for survival against harsh winter and rainfall, UN officials told mediamen. It is a great challenge for relief agencies to provide shelter to the quake survivors, they added.●