Dan Rather
THREE WEEKS ago, your reporter wrote in this space about the Asian earthquake -- in particular, the enormous human toll it had exacted in Pakistan -- and made a plea for the world to take notice.
Your reporter does not like to be seen as repeating himself. Your reporter does not like to harangue. But I will risk seeming to do both by writing again on this subject -- because the situation on the ground has not markedly improved, and three weeks has revealed that it is worse than initially feared.
Three weeks ago, the Pakistani government expressed its concern that the death toll in that country alone could climb to over 50,000. Last week, as we marked the passage of a month since the earth shook on Oct. 8, it was reported that a study overseen by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had put the estimate of those killed by the earthquake at over 87,000.
It has taken so long to appreciate the full extent of the earthquake's damage because it hit hardest in the remote, mountainous Kashmir region -- and triggered landslides that made villages in this area even harder for government rescuers and humanitarian organisations to reach.
This slow unveiling of Pakistan's misery has, among other effects, blunted the impact of news coverage of the disaster.
WARNINGS
But the warnings of what the quake had potentially wrought were there from the beginning, even if initially underestimated. And now, a month on, the feared consequences of such destruction near the outset of the harsh Himalayan winter are much closer to becoming grim reality. In addition to those it killed, the quake left an estimated three million Pakistanis homeless. Though emergency aid -- in the form of tents and food -- has come to some, hundreds of thousands still await shelter, including as many as 200,000 living at high, cold elevations.
The danger is that, barring immediate action, thousands of the quake's survivors could soon die of exposure -- freeze to death, or fall prey to sickness. The situation, says United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, is "even more urgent than it was in these other hurricanes or tsunamis."
DONATIONS INADEQUATE
But worldwide donations toward earthquake aid have lagged well behind those for this year's other natural disasters. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has called the response, from wealthy Western nations in particular, "totally inadequate." NATO has stepped up its earthquake relief operations, and there seems to be a consensus among aid organisations that a desperate funding situation has improved somewhat in the past couple of weeks. These same organisations, though, cite a need for tens of millions of dollars in additional pledges to ensure that they can get the job done in time.
One would hope that the humanitarian reasons for coming to the aid of Asia's earthquake victims are obvious, and that they would be enough to inspire an outpouring of generosity from rich nations and individuals. But if "donor fatigue" has truly set in at the end of a year filled with so much calamity, then it might be time for appeals to self-interest.
Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Since 9/11, President Musharraf, who lacks a clear successor, has had to balance his alliance with the U.S. in the war on terrorism with the demands of elements in his country, military and government that once enthusiastically supported Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.
Musharraf has already survived at least three assassination attempts, and his continued rule is in part a testament to broad support among the Pakistani people. There is a clear U.S. and worldwide interest in making sure that Musharraf does not lose that support, lest Pakistan's nuclear arsenal fall into far less friendly hands.
Dan Rather is a television broadcaster (c) 2005 DJR Inc. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
