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Weather clears, aid pours into Pakistan
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-12 18:55
Jan Vandemoortele, U.N. Resident Coordinator for Pakistan, said key roads
into the quake zone that were blocked earlier have been opened up. U.S. military
spokesman Col. James Yonts said that with the resumption of flights, helicopters
had been able to unplug any backlog of aid.
About 30 countries_ including the United States, France, Japan, Jordan,
China, Russia, Iran, and Syria — have sent relief equipment, doctors,
paramedics, tents, blankets, medicines, disaster relief teams. Many have also
pledged financial assistance.
"Relief material is moving in," Vandemoortele said in Islamabad. "It is
getting there. Roads are open now. They were blocked until very recently. We
have several trucks that are all loaded and on the road now."
A transport plane bringing tents, medicines and other relief goods from
archrival India — also affected by the quake, but less severely than Pakistan —
arrived at the air base, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.
More than 1,400 people have died in India's part of Kashmir, and the offer
and receipt of the aid by Pakistan reflects warming relations between the
nuclear-armed rivals, which embarked on a peace process early last year.
The Pakistani government's official death toll was about
23,000 people and 47,000 injured, but a senior army official who requested
anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the figure publicly said an
estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people had died.
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