Cuba provides 300 doctors to Pakistan

A massive disaster is building in the foothills of the Himalayas, mainly in northern Pakistan, Kashmir and, to a lesser degree, in neighboring India. On Oct. 8, a severe earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, hit the area. Tens of thousands of people died in the building collapses caused by the quake.

The area is so remote and the destruction of roads and bridges due to rock slides so complete that the full number of deaths from the quake is not known, but on Nov. 1 the Pakistani government revised its official figure sharply upward to over 73,000. Those severely injured numbered perhaps twice or three times the number of people killed.

Pakistani officials had not reached at least 30 percent of the area affected by the earthquake as late as Oct. 30. Even roads arduously opened by the army have frequently been closed by aftershocks.

Many of the injuries have become gangrenous because the wounds couldn’t be pro perly cleaned. Even many survivors whose wounds were properly treated have broken bones not yet properly set. As survivors reach field hospitals, the medical staffs have performed thousands of amputations to keep gangrene from killing the patients.

Two to four million people are homeless, with no shelter. The earthquake has destroyed farmers’ granaries. In an area already grindingly poor, at least 1 million additional people lost their jobs, according to the International Labor Organi zation. The ILO also said that each person with a job in this part of Pakistan supported two people without one.

Winter begins in mid-November, with heavier snows than usual predicted. The snow line is already creeping down the mountains surrounding the valleys where people live. Roads that are now hard to travel are going to become impassible so people without shelter, food or fuel for warmth face death by freezing.

Who is responding to the crisis?

The response to this developing crisis has varied.

The day after the earthquake struck, the National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan, representing 106 unions, and the Pakistan Trade Union Defense Campaign, two leading labor confederations in Pakistan, met and resolved to get all their members to contribute one day’s salary to ongoing relief efforts. Relief convoys were organ ized that took vitally needed supplies into devastated areas and set up relief camps.

Islamic groups, opposed to the government, also sprang into action and provided their own relief in separate convoys and camps.

The Pakistani government, unprepared and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis, put out a cry for help. Its closest neighbor, India—which has fought four wars with Pakistan over some of the area struck by the quake—provided medical supplies, bedding, food and transportation. India has also agreed to open five border crossings.

From outside the stricken countries, some of the best help came from socialist Cuba, which has already sent 300 doctors, including 15 surgical teams, to Pakistan. Cuba also has medical teams in Guatemala aiding recovery after a recent hurricane there. On the Oct. 27 “Round Table,” a regularly televised discussion program in Cuba, President Fidel Castro challenged the United States and the European Union to adopt a similar position based on solidarity with the survivores.

China also immediately sent aid to Paki stan. By Oct. 29, when China handed over 150,000 blankets and 3,380 tents, its aid amounted to $20.5 million.

According to the Daily Times, an English -language Pakistani newspaper, over 900 U.S. personnel—from FEMA, medi cal teams and engineers—are helping with the relief effort. Twenty-nine U.S. helicopters are currently operating to support relief efforts. Washington has pled ged $156 million, but only $50 million of that is for humanitarian relief.

The international Oxfam organization, in an Oct. 28 press release, said that the U.S. had delivered only $14.5 million, or 6.9 percent of its “fair share of the UN-requested donations.” Oxfam calculates “fair share” based on the size of the donating countries’ economy. The U.S. contribution at that point was less than China’s, which has a much smaller economy.

UN agencies—the World Health Org anization, UNESCO, the Food and Agri culture Organization—are supplying most of the aid and assistance to Pakistan. The donations promised them by the wealthy imperialist countries have not yet started to flow.

The Communist Workers and Peasants Party of Pakistan, in an Oct. 28 appeal for international solidarity, wrote: “Progres sive people in Pakistan are doing the best that they can but the enormity of the problem is overwhelming. Real meaningful assistance can only be provided through internationally coordinated relief efforts.”

The party called on people in the wealthy countries to “put pressure on their governments not only to increase their pledges but more importantly to deliver these relief funds to the UN before Nov. 15, which is the date that closes the window of opportunity for millions of people.”

The UN helicopters will be grounded soon because the airlift is running out of money. “It is now or never,” Jan Vande moortele, the UN’s earthquake relief coordinator, said.

“We will not have a second chance. Tomorrow will be too late for thousands and thousands of victims,” he added, “especially babies and small children vulnerable to pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition.”