Quake disaster border openings 'will help insurgents'

More tents were being flown today to people left homeless by the South Asian earthquake as survivors joined relief workers in hailing an agreement between India and Pakistan to open their disputed frontier to ease the delivery of assistance.

Ominously, a militant fighter in Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir also welcomed the opening, saying it would make it easier for insurgents to reach targets in India.

Visits by a pair of top US officials also kept the focus on aid efforts as the relief operation rushes to secure shelter food and medical attention for the more than 3 million people left homeless by the October 8 quake before the brutal Himalayan winter sets in.

Mark Ward, a USAID official responsible for Asia and the Near East, was due to visit quake sites by helicopter, while Gen. John Abizaid, head of the US military’s Central Command, was to meet with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and other officials.

The US recently stepped up its relief efforts, sending in 11 more Chinook helicopters to join the 17 US choppers already flying missions into the quake zone.

Rashid Khalikov, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in the quake-shattered city of Muzaffarabad, called the Pakistan-India accord reached yesterday “a good step in this disastrous condition.”

“It will open an opportunity to extend humanitarian help to the affected people in the far-flung villages alongside the Line of Control,” Khalikov said, referring to the heavily militarised cease-fire line that divides the Pakistani- and Indian-held portions of the Himalayan territory.

Muzaffarabad grocer Shiraz Nawaz said the agreement would help members of families divided by the border come together to mourn.

“My cousins want to come here from Srinagar to express sympathies over my father’s death,” said Nawaz, 26, who said his father died when their home collapsed. “This agreement will help them.” Srinagar is the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The agreement “will benefit us,” said Hassan Ali, 22, who claimed to be affiliated with Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, the largest of more than a dozen militant groups who want Indian Kashmir to be independent or united with Pakistan.

“We had to cross the border through distant places. Now we will get permits and continue our work,” said Ali, who was volunteering as a security guard at a tent camp for survivors in Muzaffarabad.

Both Islamabad and New Delhi must be “very careful and vigilant that militants do not use this facility which has been extended for humanitarian purposes,” said security analyst Talat Masood, a former Pakistani army general.

“I would think it is a positive development. It shows that the two governments are now wanting to open up,” Masood said.

The border openings are to begin November. 7. Relief goods can be sent in either direction and handed to local authorities at the crossings. Only Kashmiri civilians with families divided by the border will be allowed to cross on foot.

In her first tour of the disaster zone, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said casualties could mount if the survivors do not get more aid soon.

“The fear is that we could lose thousands of people additionally to diarrhoea, disease and injuries that are not treated,” she said. “It’s absolutely urgent that as much aid gets in as possible.”

Though donors have pledged hundreds of millions in aid to fund the international relief effort, only a fraction has been received. The United Nations has warned its emergency reserves are very low, and that helicopters could be grounded within a week without more funding.