PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY USG FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS ON EARTHQUAKE IN AFGHANISTAN

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY USG FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS ON EARTHQUAKE IN AFGHANISTAN

"In a ghastly sense, it is lucky there is a humanitarian aid presence there", the Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, told correspondents at a Headquarters briefing this afternoon in reference to the latest earthquake in Afghanistan.

The earthquake in the area of Faizabad had occurred in the early morning hours of Saturday, 30 May, and had already claimed an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 lives, he said. It hit just 40 kilometres north-northwest of Faizabad and followed the major earthquake of 4 February, which killed at least 4,000 people. The scope of the current earthquake was bigger, however, and at 7.1 on the Richter scale, it was of the same magnitude as the Armenian earthquake of 1988 and the Iranian earthquake of 1990.

He said that the situation was a "scenario from hell", given the extreme inaccessibility of the region. For example, travelling from Faizabad to the earthquake centre took some five days by mule, although it took just 15 minutes by helicopter. The three most affected sites included the area around the Shar-i-Buzurg district where 16 villages had been destroyed and where the greatest loss of life had occurred. Road access to that area had also been cut by landslides. More than half of the 15 villages at Rostak, the site of the February earthquake, had been destroyed, as well as 20 villages in Chah-ab, although fewer deaths had been recorded there.

The disaster had left up to 45,000 people homeless in a region of some 60,000 to 70,000 people, mostly farmers, he said. The need more than justified the statement read out by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, in which the Secretary-General expressed his commitment to extend all United Nations efforts to relieve the suffering of the affected populations in as speedy a manner as possible. Indeed, the international aid community had responded swiftly to the call, and the mid-winter weather of the last earthquake was somewhat better.

Continuing, he said that the United Nations agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had visited the area yesterday, and reached agreement, along with the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), on the division of responsibility. The NGOs had been providing information since Saturday, and the ICRC had already moved staff from Kabul to Islamabad. The Faizabad airstrip, which would serve as the main logistics base for the operation, should receive five United Nations flights by the end of the day. Further, a United Nations helicopter on loan from the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) was shuttling between Faizabad and the affected area, and the ICRC had obtained two more helicopters from Tajikistan, which were distributing relief supplies.

Afghan Earthquake Briefing - 2 - 1 June 1998

The major identified needs were shelter and medical supplies, he said. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), there was enough food for the moment in Faizabad. However, aid workers feared a malaria outbreak. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today sent a four-member United Nations disaster assessment coordination team to the region to assist the United Nations aid coordinator in Islamabad, Alfredo Witschi-Cestari.

Much concern was expressed by governments at a morning meeting today regarding the political and humanitarian situation in the country in light of the earthquake, "as if Afghanistan did not have enough problems", he said. France was already sending in supplies via Tajikistan, and a number of other governments, including in the European Union, Japan, Netherlands and Tajikistan itself, had confirmed their readiness to provide assistance.

The lesson learned from the last disaster was that the key was a very, very quick response, he said. Indeed, the only bright spot leftover from the first incident was that the response of the United Nations agencies, ICRC and the NGO community to the current episode had been very quick. Another key was the rapid mobilization of air transport. Towards that end, the WFP was contributing more aircraft over the next two days, bringing to five the total number of aircraft that were expected to be operational by Wednesday.

He promised to keep correspondents apprised of further details. Despite his more conservative estimates, the Afghan Government estimated that as many as 5,000 people had been killed and some 45,000 left homeless from the current earthquake.

To a question about the possibility of providing earthquake monitoring in the region, he said it was uncertain whether future monitoring would hasten any future response. Ideally, it would be more useful to have buildings that were more resistant to earthquakes. Yesterday, some structures experienced aftershocks, and people expressed concern about returning even to those buildings which were still standing. Meanwhile, the continuing Faizabad-based humanitarian operation was already having a positive effect.

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