Martin pledges long-term relief
TORONTO • The federal government will match all private donations made to the earthquake relief effort in northern Pakistan and could dispatch the Canadian Forces’ disaster response team within days, Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday at a meeting with Pakistani community leaders in Toronto.
He also promised a long-term commitment to help the country rebuild after the natural disaster.
Canada pledged $20-million yesterday to send thousands of winter blankets to the area near the Pakistan-India border that was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on Saturday.
Mr. Martin gave a detailed accounting of how Ottawa plans to spend that money yesterday, saying the government will match any public financial gifts made by Canadians over the next two weeks, give $1-million to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies for medical assistance, and make further funds available to key non-governmental organizations through the Canadian International Development Agency.
The government has dispatched a team of Foreign Affairs and Department of National Defence officials to determine whether Pakistan needs, or wants, the help of the Canadian Forces’ Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), a medical and relief force assembled for such situations.
“Canada will stay committed to this effort all the way through reconstruction,” Mr. Martin said.
Torrential rain was hampering rescue teams, and efforts to bring shelter and food to the victims were chaotic. Outlying villages still lacked even the most rudimentary medical care.
Several officials in the command tent of the United Nations rescue centre in Muzaffarabad admitted the search phase would soon give way to relief and body recovery. Some said the hunt for survivors could end today.
Officials in the worst-hit areas of Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province said the quake, whose 7.6 magnitude made it the strongest to hit the region in a century, may have claimed up to 40,000 lives.
The official death count is 23,000 in Pakistan and a 2,000 in India.
Some of the hardest hit areas received their first aid yesterday as more helicopters joined the operation, but flights had to be halted for several hours because of torrential rains and hailstorms that added to the misery on the ground.
A senior UN official said helicopters had helped but rescue teams still had not been able to reach areas beyond the towns of Muzaffarabad and Balakot, in the Neelam Valley, or Chikothi and Jehlum because of landslides.
“ Things are improving, but in the areas rescue teams have not yet been able to reach hope basically is fading,” said the official, who did not want to be identified.