The Hindu : Relief reaching quake-hit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 29, 2002

International

International

Relief reaching quake-hit

NAHRIN (Afghanistan) march 28. Food, medicine, tents and other aid supplies began pouring into the quake-shattered northern Afghanistan region around Nahrin on Thursday, just hours after workers used explosives to clear roads leading to the stricken area.

The country on Thursday was observing a national day of mourning for the victims, though no one knows how many Afghans actually died in Monday's powerful temblor. Officials said the death toll was in the hundreds, not the thousands as originally feared. A strong aftershock on Wednesday sent boulders tumbling across mountain roads, temporarily blocking efforts to rush relief supplies to tens of thousands Afghans left homeless. But aid workers said boulders blocking main routes had been blasted apart with explosives overnight and that the relief effort was now in full swing. "Everything is moving along quite well,'' said Sherine Zaghow, an aid coordinator for the French relief agency ACTED. "The roads have been cleared and distribution has begun.''

The 6.1-magnitude quake struck nearly 80 villages in a mountainous region 15 km in radius, affecting 100,000 people either cut off from food supplies or left homeless. But the United Nations said the death toll, at 600 confirmed dead on Wednesday, was expected to tally 800-1,200. By Afghan standards, aid reached the quake-stricken Hindu Kush region with remarkable speed — assisted by U.S. forces in Afghanistan to battle Taliban and al-Qaida forces and international peacekeepers whose first job is maintaining security in the capital, Kabul. "We're here, obviously, for a combat mission, but when this unfortunate accident happened, we were standing by with our coalition partners,'' said Maj. Leanne Smullen, who accompanied two U.S. Chinooks from Bagram air base laden on Wednesday with U.N. medical supplies and tents. The crew also evacuated one injured person. Up to six Chinooks landed in Nahrin early Thursday loaded with wheat, blankets, California dates, water, and Army rations. The U.S. soldiers jumped out of the choppers and circled them as aid was unloaded, providing cover in case of attack. "It's never too much to be too safe. It's very possible we could have al-Qaida or Taliban that we don't know about in the area,'' said a U.S. military spokesman.

A mobile hospital unit from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry was heading from Tajikistan, Interfax news agency reported. The International Security Assistance Force in Kabul was to bring a mobile medical unit later in the day, along with four doctors and eight medics. Meanwhile, teams of physicians from Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, were being sent to look for injured survivors not able to make their way to makeshift clinics in Nahrin. Despite rough, poorly maintained roads and frequent truck breakdowns, 2,000 tents, 10,000 blankets and 1,000 tons of food reached Nahrin, 170 km north of Kabul, a little more than a day after the quake, said a U.N. spokeswoman— AP

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