Aid arrives, but too slowly, says UN

GENEVA: International aid is starting to arrive for flood-hit Pakistan, but too slowly for relief agencies which are running out of resources to deal with the disaster that has hit millions, according to UN agencies.

“After the appeal of the Secretary General of the UN, which seems to have been heard, we are moving in the right direction... donors, the international community is being mobilised,” said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Tuesday.

The appeal for $460 million launched on Aug 11 by the United Nations has received 35 per cent of required financing, she said, adding that it had reached just 20 per cent on Monday morning.

However, the $161 million received so far was far from sufficient to cope with the historic floods which, according to Pakistani authorities. had directly affected 14 million people in the south Asian country.

“There is progress, but that does not mean that it is perfect,” said Ms Byrs, noting for instance that only 13 per cent of required funding for health provisions had been met.

The World Food Programme warned that “food stock for September is under significant pressure”.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), Marco Jimenez, said a lack of funds would lead to a delay in assistance, which in turn could lead to “an increased risk of a new wave of deaths caused by waterborne diseases”.—AFP

Water flow rises at Sukkur, falls at Guddu

SUKKUR/HYDERABAD/ DADU: Water level at Sukkur and Kotri barrages was showing a rising trend on Tuesday while it has dropped at Guddu Barrage.

Kotri Barrage control room said that water flow at Guddu barrage upstream was recorded at 10,56,998 cusec at 8pm on Tuesday against a discharge of 10,76,728 cusec on Monday.

At Sukkur Barrage, upstream water flow was recorded at 10,21,220 cusec. At Kotri Barrage a flow of 329,907 cusec of water was recorded.

In a daily briefing at Sukkur Barrage, Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo ruled out possibility of any threat to Sukkur Barrage or Sukkur city, adding that there would be no need to make a breach at Ali Wahan dyke.

He said that all the right and left bank dykes were being vigilantly guarded round the clock and the assessment of flood losses will be made once the water level comes down to its pre-flood position.

He said that plenty of water had passed over to Balochistan districts of Jafferabad and Dera Allahyar thus paving way for peaceful conditions for Jacobabad and Kashmore districts.

According to him, Jacobabad and Shikarpur cities were quite safe and there was no flood threat to these towns.

However, with the passage of floodwater from Sukkur Barrage to Kotri, pressure was mounting on Naushahro, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and Thatta and Irrigation Department’s priority was to save the people of these cities, he added

Mr Dharejo said that water in huge quantity was reaching from Taunsa and Panjnand to Guddu and Sukkur Barrages, which had increased also with the latest spell of rains in the upcountry and melting of snows on the mountains.

Meanwhile, reports from Jacobabad revealed that the Shahbaz Airbase was safe. A similar situation was reported from Thull where conditions were becoming normal and people had started to return to their homes.

Meanwhile, ugly scenes are being witnessed day and night during the distribution of food at different relief camps of Sukkur and Rohri and at a number of places police used batons on camp inmates to save food being looted from the distributing vans.

There is mismanagement and lack of coordination among different tiers of administration and the result is that at some of camps cooked food does not reach in time making the people to suffer and frustrate, while at some camps food is available in excess of actual need so much so that, at sometimes the authorities had no other way to dispose it of but to throw it.

Meanwhile, an erosion of stud was reported at Bhanote bund which was denied by the assistant executive engineer Sibtain Shah. He said that some portion of small stones whose layer was pitched on the stud has fallen. He said that such layer is pitched only to beautify the stud. “Our actual stud is safe”, he said.

In Dadu district, at least 20 villages have been hit by floods while water has inundated Lal Bag area near Sehwan town and Khanpur area.

Water level at Dadu-Moro bridge rose to 132.3RL on Tuesday while it reduced from 8.3 feet to 8.0 feet at LS embankment near Dadu town. Likewise, water level at Moundar has reduced from 4.1 feet to 3.9 feet.

Leakages have been reported in RBOD-11 near Sehwan town, while flood water inundated Lal Bag area of Sehwan town. Water level rose in kutcha area of Khanpur. Allah Dino Mallah village had also been inundated forcing the people to abandon their homes and move to safe places.

World XI may tour Pakistan to end cricket isolation

LONDON: Wisden Cricketer magazine reports that the International Cricket Council will send an invitational World XI to play in Pakistan to end the country’s sporting isolation following a terror attack on the Sri Lankan team at Lahore last year.

The magazine quotes England Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke as saying “world cricket must go back and play in Pakistan.”

Clarke, head of the ICC’s Pakistan Task Team, writes in the September issue that the cricket community “must keep giving Pakistan cricket the chance to fund itself and move forward.”

“Cricket cannot abandon a nation with such a magnificent history in the game, such wonderful players and such enthusiastic and knowledgeable supporters. It will be an historic moment when international cricket resumes in Pakistan and the first ICC team walks out,” he further said.

Counting the costs of no international cricket in Pakistan, Clarke said the losses came up to £27 million to £10 million, saying it was “a brutal impact that few enterprises could survive.”

The ECB chief said his board plans on hosting more international matches and series for Pakistan in the next few years.

“The atmosphere, the passionate support and, of course, the tremendous cricket played by the Pakistan team made it a compelling experience. The PCB’s economic needs make it imperative.”

No dates for the tour were revealed in a release issued by the magazine. Pakistan has played recent series at neutral venues.

Iran tells West to stay out of woman’s stoning case

TEHRAN: Iran told Western nations on Tuesday to stay out of the case of a woman who faces death by stoning, warning it will not tolerate any interference in the matter still under examination.

“Independent nations do not allow other countries to interfere in their judicial affairs,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.

The official was responding to questions from reporters about the status of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two sentenced to death by stoning by an Iranian court.

“Western nations must not pressurise and hype it (the case) up... judicial cases have precise procedures, especially when it concerns murder.

“If a person committed a crime in Iran, that person is prosecuted which is normal, especially if she has killed somebody. The heavier the sentence, the more meticulous we are in carrying it out. This is being done,” said Mehmanparast.

Western nations and human rights groups have come out strongly against Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s stoning sentence and warned that her execution is imminent.

Iranian judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani has temporarily suspended the sentence from being carried out.

Officials in the Islamic republic maintain the woman was handed the stoning sentence for adultery and for being an accomplice in her husband’s murder.

Her lawyers and London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International say she was only sentenced for having an “illicit relationship” with two men and that the murder charge was adopted later.

Mehmanparast said the outcry from the West over her case was “irrational” and “rather a politicised approach”.

“If we are to free those who committed murders, there won’t be any security. If this is the case, we can also demand that they free all those who have committed murders and serious crimes,” he said.

When asked about Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s proposal to offer Mohammadi-Ashtiani asylum, he said Brazil would come to “understand it is a fuss created to undermine relations” between the two countries.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad echoed similar views in an interview on Iran’s English-language Press TV broadcast on Sunday.

The hardliner said Iran’s judiciary chief agreed Mohammadi-Ashtiani should not be sent to Brazil.

“I think there is no need to create some trouble for President Lula and to send her to Brazil. We are keen to export our technology to Brazil rather than such people. I think the problem will be solved” in Iran, Ahmadinejad said in comments posted on the channel’s website. —AFP

Pakistan wins more aid pledges from world community

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan won more aid pledges Tuesday after concerns that money is not coming through fast enough to help 20 million people hit by unprecedented floods and stave off a “second wave of death” from disease.

Torrential monsoon rain triggered catastrophic floods which have affected a fifth of the country, wiping out villages, rich farm land, infrastructure and killing an estimated 1,600 people in the nation's worst ever natural disaster.

The United Nations last week launched an immediate appeal for 460 million dollars to cover the next 90 days and UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Pakistan at the weekend, calling on the world to quicken its aid pledges.

Officials now estimate that 35 per cent of the funds have been committed.

Japan on Tuesday came forward to pledge an additional 10 million dollars in emergency aid and Australia promised an extra 21.6 million dollars.

“There are grave risks that the flooding will worsen Pakistan's social circumstances but also its long-term economic circumstances will be potentially devastated,” Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told ABC Radio.

State media in Saudi Arabia said the country had raised 20.5 million dollars in aid on the first day of a national campaign for the Pakistani floods.

Turkey has also doubled financial aid for flood-stricken Pakistan to 10 million dollars (7.8 million euros) after urgent pleas from Islamabad and the United Nations, the foreign ministry said.

“In view of the increasing toll of the flood disaster, the government has decided to extend another five million dollars to Pakistan,” the ministry said in a statement late Monday.

In addition, it said, Turkey has begun transporting 140 tonnes of relief supplies worth more than one million dollars.

Flood survivors cramped into sweltering tent cities or camping out along roadsides have hit out furiously against Pakistan's weak civilian government.

Britain, which is emerging from a recent diplomatic row with Pakistan, branded the international response “lamentable” and charities said Pakistan was suffering from an “image deficit” partly because of perceived links to terror.

A UN spokesman said Monday he feared Pakistan was on the brink of a “second wave of death” unless more donor funds materialised, with up to 3.5 million children at risk from water-borne diseases.

The World Bank also agreed to provide Islamabad with a loan of 900 million dollars, warning that the impact of the disaster on the economy was expected to be “huge”.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged the world to speed up aid urgently, while Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the country could not cope on its own and warned the disaster could play into the hands of insurgents.

“We fear we're getting close to the start of seeing a second wave of death if not enough money comes through, due to water-borne diseases along with lack of clean water and food shortages,” Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

He told AFP that about six million people were at risk of deadly water-borne diseases, including 3.5 million children.

Typhoid and hepatitis A and E are also concerns, he said, adding that the World Health Organization is preparing to assist up to 140,000 people in case of a cholera outbreak.

The United Nations estimates that 1,600 people have died in the floods, while the government in Islamabad has confirmed 1,384 deaths.

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said about one quarter of the aid had come from his country and charged that some nations had not yet grasped the scale of the catastrophe.

“The response from the international community as a whole, I have to say, has been lamentable. It's been absolutely pitiful.”

Care International spokeswoman Melanie Brooks said the UN must explain to donor states that “the money is not going to go to the hands of the Taliban”.

“The victims are the mothers, the farmers, children,” she said.

“At that very crucial time this natural disaster has affected the ability and the capacity and the economy of Pakistan,” Qureshi told the BBC.

“The damage and the magnitude is too large for natural resources to cope with it... Pakistan needs your help.” – AFP

Bombs kill seven civilians in Afghanistan

KABUL: Two roadside bombs in Afghanistan killed seven civilians, including at least three women and a child, police said on Tuesday.

A remote-controlled bomb on a motorcycle parked on a bridge in southern Ghazni city detonated prematurely on Tuesday, killing two passers-by and wounding another five, including two children, police told AFP.

The blast took place just as a police convoy was about to pass, said Mohammad Osman, commander of Afghanistan's southeastern police zone.

“Two civilians were martyred and another five were wounded,” he said.

The bomber had been planning to trigger the device by remote control and was injured in the explosion and had been arrested, Osman said.

In a similar incident late Monday, a roadside bomb ripped through a civilian vehicle in Shindand district, in the western province of Herat, killing five civilians and injuring two, said Lal Mohammad Omarzai, the district chief.

“Three women, a man and a child were killed and two other women were hurt,”he said.

Omarzai blamed the attack on “enemies of Afghanistan”, a term used to refer to Taliban militants who have waged an increasingly bloody insurgency against Afghan and NATO forces since they were pushed out of power in late 2001. —AFP

More heavy rains in western China kill 51

BEIJING: Heavy rains in western China have killed at least another 51 people, state media said on Tuesday, adding to the more than 2,000 people who have died in flooding and landslides nationwide so far this year.

Storms in Longnan, in poor and remote Gansu province, killed 36, left 23 missing and prompted the evacuation of more than 120,000 residents because of landslides and rising rivers, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The neighbouring district of Zhouqu was inundated this month by an avalanche of mud following unusually strong downpours. The death toll has now risen to 1,254, with hundreds still unaccounted for.

More rain is expected in Zhouqu over the next few days, Xinhua said.

In Sichuan province to the south, landslides have killed 15 people in Wenchuan, the report added.

Wenchuan was the epicentre of a massive earthquake two years ago, in which more than 80,000 people lost their lives.

At least another 1,000 people have died in floods in central, southern and northeast China so far this year. —Reuters