Two weeks on, many quake survivors still cut off

The engineering battalion promised by NATO to help reach untold numbers of quake survivors in the rugged hills of northern Pakistan is needed immediately, an international aid official said yesterday.

In another move aimed at easing the suffering of survivors of the October 8 quake that killed more than 53,000 people, India offered to set up three relief centres along a de facto border dividing it from Pakistan in the Kashmir region.

Pakistan said it had sent India a proposal for five border crossing points in disputed Kashmir, adding it hoped talks could be held before the end of the month.

"The emphasis is on the need for road engineers. If we can open the roads, that would solve everything," World Food Programme spokeswoman Mia Turner said, referring to NATO's move.

"More than 2,000 villages have to be reached and they have to be reached by roads," she said of the shattering earthquake that wrecked the few roads which wound high into the hills.

"If these people were connected, we wouldn't be carrying stuff up and down mountains on mules," she said as another train of the animals set off up into the hills from a village above the destroyed Pakistani Kashmir capital of Muzaffarabad.

Each mule can carry 100 kg but, like everything else in the disaster zone, they are in short supply.

UN officials said more helicopters were needed to get tents out before the harsh Himalayan winter descends.

"The top priority overall is tents and emergency shelter," UN co-ordinator Jan Vandermoortele said. "We need helicopters, a lot of helicopters and all types of helicopters."

The known death toll is expected to rise substantially, with people laying buried in the rubble of cut-off villages.

More than 75,000 people are known to have been injured ser-iously, and opening the roads would allow the many more in cut-off villages to get medical treatment needed to survive.

The helicopter aid fleet, which Vandermoortele said had only 50 operational at any one time, cannot deliver enough or reach everywhere and pilots report villagers waving flags to signal they needed help, Turner said. Some were even trying to clear areas for helipads.

The Pakistani army is working around the clock to open roads covered by landslides or swept away by the quake in Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province.

Lieutenant-General Salahuddin Satti said he hoped the road up Pakistani Kashmir's Jhelum valley would be re-opened in a week, but it would take six weeks for the nearby Neelum valley.

In some parts of Pakistani Kashmir, people are desperate enough to fight each other for food aid or loot supply trucks.

Hopes of a massive airlift to bring survivors to safety were dashed on Friday when NATO turned down a UN appeal.

The US-dominated military alliance said it would send up to 1,000 troops to help, but would not stage an airlift.

"It will help a lot," Vandermoortele said, who, like other aid officials complained the world was not doing enough. "But we need more, we need much more, and we need it much faster."

NATO will send only six more helicopters to join the 40 that members of the alliance have sent.

Helicopters are the only means of getting quickly deep into the hills. The nearest are in India, where the quake killed 1,300 people, but it has fought two of its three wars with Pakistan over Kashmir, which both claim.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had told India he would accept helicopters, but only if they came without crews given the enormous political sensitivity. India said no.

India's offer to open relief centres came four days after Musharraf appealed to India to allow survivors to cross the de facto border in Kashmir to help deal with the catastrophe.

India welcomed the offer and said it was ready to discuss details.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan had handed India a proposal for five crossing points for two-way movement along the border.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said it was hoped the two sides could talk before the end of the month when the Indian offer of relief centres could also be discussed.

Musharraf has expressed disappointment the world had not come forward with more pledges of money to rebuild the shattered region, where the quake wiped out entire towns and villages.

The UN has been pledged about a third of its $312 million appeal for Pakistani relief, a UN official said.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said Pakistan would need billions to rebuild.

An estimated two million or more people are homeless but winter tents are scarce and Pakistan pleads daily for more.

An aid official said up to 540,000 tents were needed but, with global supplies limited, the relief operation could come up 200,000 short.