Saturday, November 19, 2005
About two-thirds of the new pledges are loans.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The world pledged a whopping $3.4 billion in new quake aid for Pakistan at a make-or-break donor conference Saturday, but aid groups warned that many of the promises were loans that will heap more debt on the impoverished country.
Pakistan nonetheless hailed the conference as a success, with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf thanking the nearly 80 attending nations and international agencies for "helping Pakistan in this hour of need." He said the gesture "will never be forgotten."
The conference followed weeks of largely unheeded warnings from the United Nations and aid groups that thousands could die of hunger, exposure and disease unless money arrives before the harsh Himalayan winter. Hundreds of thousands of survivors face a season of suffering as temperatures dip well below freezing in the mountains, with children and the elderly most at risk.
Acute respiratory illnesses are on the rise among the 3 million people whose homes were destroyed by the 7.6-magnitude quake Oct. 8, and there have been outbreaks of diarrhea, scabies, tetanus and other diseases.
Expressing satisfaction
"Praise be to God that the first step in this campaign has been a success," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said of the donors conference. "We are very satisfied."
The $3.4 billion in new pledges raises the total aid pledge to $5.8 billion -- slightly more than the government said it needed to rebuild from the quake.
But about two-thirds of the money was in the form of loans, Aziz said.
Aid groups said that meant the pledges were a mixed bag. Jane Cocking, humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan for the British charity Oxfam, said the new debt would be detrimental in the long term to those suffering from the quake.
Most of the loans are long term and include low interest rates, but they eventually must be paid back.
The United States, which counts Pakistan as a key ally in the war on terrorism, nearly tripled its aid pledge to $510 million, including $300 million in cash. Washington also sent 1,200 troops, two dozen helicopters, heavy equipment and two mobile hospitals to the quake zone.
Musharraf and Aziz both promised that the money would be used wisely and honestly.
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