US raises Pakistan aid to $55 million

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday announced an additional $20 million for flood victims in Pakistan, bringing its contribution to date to $55 million.

“This disaster is so vast … and as we get better insight into the scope, our contribution may well grow as well,” said US Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Daniel Feldman while announcing the new package.

“We obviously are closely monitoring what is an unfolding and ongoing disaster in Pakistan,” said P.J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.

Mr Feldman said that since weather in Pakistan on Tuesday was good, US helicopters were able to fly and move about 100,000 pounds worth of humanitarian commodities and transported more than 700 Pakistanis stranded in the remote areas.

“Just as the flood is moving south, we are going to move south,” he added. “We are going to expand those activities with new organisations and existing organisations.”

At the White House, a senior official declared that US-Pakistan relationship was “much bigger” than the war against terrorists and that’s why Washington was eager to help Pakistan cope with the floods.

“We … look at every one of the requests that come in through official channels to make sure that we are doing all we can to help alleviate some of the terrible human tragedy that is happening over there,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said.

When asked whether the militants were using the floods to expand their influence, Mr Burton said: “We certainly hope that they are not using this opportunity to inflict even more pain on the people of Pakistan.”

At the State Department, Mr Feldman encouraged the American public to go to USAID’s website and click on the flood response, providing links to websites for major NGOs working in Pakistan.

“All of them would gladly receive private contributions at this point to add to the effort,” he said.

Mark Ward, acting director, US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, noted that while immediate repercussions of the flood were dramatic, “yet almost more importantly is the fact that this is very much a medium- to longer-term issue, with food security, with the economic infrastructure, and with needs that will be ongoing for many months, if not years”.