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South Asia quake survivors mourn a year on, fearing for future
2006-10-08
One year after the devastating South Asian earthquake wiped whole villages off the map, survivors of the disaster fell silent amid fears of another harsh winter in makeshift shelters. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lay a wreath at a sombre memorial service in Muzaffarabad, the still rubble-strewn capital of Pakistani Kashmir, to honour the 73,000 who died in his country. Sirens then wailed to begin a minute's silence at 8:52 am (0352 GMT) Sunday, the exact time the 7.6-magnitude quake struck last year, shearing off mountainsides and sweeping hamlets into foaming rivers across a zone the size of Switzerland. "I praise your courage and resilience. We will always be with you," Musharraf told an audience of more than 1,000 people including Kashmiri officials in a marquee near the city's destroyed university. Musharraf said he had ordered authorities to probe complaints of corruption by reconstruction officials, and announced that the government would write off loans that survivors had taken out to rebuild their homes. "Those who died cannot be brought back, but I assure you that we will give you a better life. I also thank the international community and all the countries who helped us," added the military ruler, who shunned his usual army uniform for a traditional Pakistani smock and trousers. "It is good thing the president has acknowledged that corruption exists," shopkeeper Abdul Rauf, 45, told AFP in Muzaffarabad's ruined bazaar. "But these officials have made millions of rupees and even if they are fired, they will still enjoy the looted money for the rest of their lives." Abdul Basit, 25, said he was injured in the quake but has still not received any compensation. "Nobody is listening," he said, adding that he thought officials were deliberately delaying pay-outs to force people to pay bribes. In the capital Islamabad, survivors held a vigil to remember the people crushed to death when the quake brought down an upscale 10-storey apartment block, Margalla Towers. Security was tight for Musharraf's visit to Muzaffarabad after recent scares including the recovery of two rockets near his official residence in Islamabad on Thursday. Police also feared a repeat of earlier protests, including one on Saturday in Islamabad, by survivors angry and fearful that up to half of the 3.5 million left homeless by the disaster will spend another winter in makeshift homes. Heaps of rubble still lie untouched in many areas, while children are taught in tents or in the open air. The United Nations says it will take 10 years for the region to return to normal. Musharraf said that work to rebuild the 600,000 homes, 8,000 schools and 350 hospitals destroyed by the temblor was progressing well, funded by six billion dollars from foreign donors. He also used the opportunity to campaign for his relection in 2007. "Please elect these people who are working for your development as it is vital for the continuity of reconstruction work," Musharraf said in his address to survivors in the town of Mansehra. He also urged them to check Islamic militancy. "Please ponder over the reasons that why Muslims all over the world are victims of in-fighting. A Muslim is killing Muslims, we have to change this situation," Musharraf said. Musharraf later inaugurated a newly constructed girls high school in Chakothi village which lies near the Line of Control, the de facto Kashmir border between India and Pakistan. Tin huts have sprung up across the region and nearly half a million families have received some or all of the approximately 3,000 dollars in compensation they were promised, the government says. But the UN says 33,000 quake survivors still live in tent camps in Pakistan. The number could hit 60,000 as snow drives villagers from the mountains and into towns. The aid agency Oxfam says at least 1.8 million people are still living in temporary homes in Pakistan, although Musharraf has rejected the figure. Meanwhile in Indian-administered Kashmir, where the quake killed another 1,300 people, authorities said no official events were planned to mark the anniversary. Nearly 50,000 people in the Indian sector will have to spend their second winter in temporary tin sheds and flapping tents, aid agencies say. The quake is said to have razed around 22,500 homes there. Muzi.com News
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