The Hindu : Disaster too huge for Iran to handle, says Khatami

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 28, 2003

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Disaster too huge for Iran to handle, says Khatami

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA DEC. 27. A day after a massive earthquake struck the ancient Iranian city of Bam, rescue teams across the globe have started arriving to pull out as many survivors as possible from the rubble.

"Our immediate two priorities are dealing with the people who are trapped and transferring the wounded to other areas," the Interior Minister, Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, has said. "Our biggest difficulty so far is rescuing people because there is no electricity and people are doing what they can with flashlights."

The President, Mohammad Khatami, has called for international help and declared three days of mourning. "The disaster is far too huge for us to meet all of our needs," he said. The Interior Ministry announced that it was ready to accept humanitarian aid from all countries except Israel, and added that sniffer dogs and machines, along with medicines, blankets, tents and prefabricated units were in short supply.

The State-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoting "reliable sources" said that an estimated 10,000 people had been killed, but cautioned that "the number will rise" as many people were still trapped under the debris.

The quake flattened entire blocks of buildings and on one street only trees and a wall could be seen. Survivors piled up bodies, wrapped in blankets, in the streets and many were seen sobbing next to the bodies of their loved ones. The scene at Bam's only cemetery was heart-rending. Nearly 1,000 grieving persons awaited a bulldozer to dig a trench where 500 corpses could be buried in a mass grave.

On Friday night, with temperatures dipping, many survivors, some in their nightclothes in which they had fled from their homes at the time of the disaster, huddled around fires in the ravaged streets to keep themselves warm. The killer temblor also caused extensive damage to the giant medieval fortress, which has been Bam's historic landmark and overlooks the walled city.

Television pictures showed that the top portion of the mud-brick fort had crumbled, leaving behind a few walls intact. Parts of the old city, which was a prominent location on the "Silk route", were nearly 2,000 years old. IRNA quoted the Managing Director of Kerman Cultural Heritage Department, Fakour Pass, as saying that more than 90 per cent of the city's historic quarter was destroyed.

Faced with the destruction of most hospitals in the disaster zone, the Iranian Government decided to use military transport planes to evacuate the wounded for treatment at other places.

Iran's Red Crescent Society said rescue and relief teams had been sent to Bam. In Teheran, volunteers thronged blood donation centres, while in other areas, collection of blankets and other relief material had got under way.

Foreign relief teams

Among foreign donors, IRNA reported that Germany and Switzerland had sent rescue teams and sniffer dogs to locate the survivors.

Three aircraft carrying foreign relief aid landed in Kerman on Saturday. Among other European countries, Austria said it was preparing to send up to 120 disaster relief specialists as well as a dog rescue team, while a Belgian Red Cross team, aboard a C-130 transport plane was scheduled to arrive on Saturday with medicines, water, blankets and other relief material.

Japan had pledged to send rescue workers and relief supplies and China had decided to donate $602,000. Taiwan was sending an 84-member relief team, equipped with sniffer dogs and digging instruments.

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