PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE: RELIEF MOVING FORWARD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ISLAMABAD 015513

SIPDIS

KABUL - PLEASE PASS TO CFC-A
DEPARTMENT - PLEASE PASS TO USAID

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/11/2015
TAGS: PREL PK MASS PARM AEMR ASEC PGOV AADP CASC AID
SUBJECT: PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE: RELIEF MOVING FORWARD

REF: A. HUNT/SWAMY/GRENCIK - TASK FORCE EMAIL 10/13/2005

B. GRENCIK - FAGIN EMAIL 10/14/05

C. ISLAMABAD 15316 AND PREVIOUS NOTAL

Classified By: DCM Patricia Butenis, Reasons 1.5 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary and introduction: Relief efforts in
Pakistan are pushing forward, as the government begins to
implement a coherent Concept of Operations for managing its
response to the crisis. The U.S. has received diplomatic
clearance to double its milair relief flights into Islamabad,
and additional U.S. helicopters arrive each day to join the
mission. Even with the ramp up in relief operations, many
areas hit by the October 8 earthquake remain inaccessible to
relief workers. U.S. C-130s began air-drops of rations to
survivors in these remote areas. Military coordinators are
now considering whether some U.S. air assets should redeploy
to alternative air fields, as operations at the Qasim and
Chaklala sites are reaching saturation. The UN and NGO
relief continues to move forward, but coordination with the
government remains a challenge. The press continues to
berate the government for an inadequate response to the
crisis, with some actually suggesting that the failure to
reach victims in remote areas as "politically-motivated
neglect." (Note: In a meeting in which the Ambassador urged
the government to proactively engage the media, he repeated
this baseless characterization to National Security Advisor
Tariq Aziz. After a moment of stunned silence, Aziz replied,
with perfect comedic timing,"That's nonsense -- the region
voted PML" (i.e. , for President Musharraf's party). End
note.)

No AMCIT Casualties
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2. (SBU) The Embassy has not had any reports of American
citizens killed or injured. Consular officers have cleared
eleven (11) welfare-and-whereabouts inquiries as of October
13; they are following up on two additional inquiries
received October 14.

U.S. Relief Flights and Helicopter Operations
--------------


3. (C) The Office of Defense Representative - Pakistan
(ODRP) scored a major victory today, obtaining blanket
diplomatic clearance for eight (8) U.S. milair flights daily,
doubling the number the USG had earlier in the week. Five
flights came in on October 13, carrying tents, cots, rations,
maintenance parts. The Contingency Response Group (CRG) at
Chaklala airfield is doing well and is lashed up with the
Pakistan Air Force. The CRG was able to dramatically improve
the efficiency of the airfield's cargo operations by
connecting two NGO workers who have worked for DHL to
Pakistani logistics officers: the NGO/DHL workers showed the
Pakistanis the advantages of getting cargo onto pallets and
quickly converted a haphazard operation into an organized,
efficient warehouse. In another stroke of serendipity, CRG
cargo handlers came to the rescue when an IL-76 bearing
Iranian relief supplies could not find a Pakistani team to
off-load its cargo; a photo of the U.S. ground crew unloading
the Iranian supplies made the morning papers.


4. (C) Task Force Griffen conducted seventy-six helicopter
sorties, conveying 208,680 pounds of relief supplies and 675
injured passengers. Two Navy CH-53s arrived at Qasim AFB on
October 13. Twenty CH-47s are still on schedule to arrive in
staggered flows in Baghram over the next fourteen (14) days.
On the State side, two (2)INL-sponsored MI-8s from Kabul due
in Pakistan on October 14 have been delayed at least one day,
as the Bulgarian and Tajikistani firms from whom the helos
are leased must seek national government approval to transfer
the assets to Pakistan.

Pieces Falling Together: GOP Concept of Operations
-------------- --------------


5. (SBU) In post's morning meeting with Deputy Commissioner
of the Federal Relief Commission (FRC) BG Farooq, USG
liaisons received a presentation outlining the GOP's Concept
of Operations for the relief effort. (Note: Post has
emailed the full presentation to Task Force-1. End note.)
The liaison team will reciprocate on October 14 by giving the
FRC an outline of how the U.S. military can support the GOP
Concept of Operations. Once approved by the GOP, the U.S.
military response will be knitted together with the Pakistani
concept. Post liaisons will then weave support from U.S.
civilian agencies (DART, USAID, etc.),the UN and NGOs into
the fold.


6. (C) The GOP has identified three sites (Rawalkot,
Muzzafarabad and Mansehra) as potential forward operating
bases, from which relief supplies would be transported. An
U.S. military engineering assessment team arrived in
Islamabad October 13 and will assess the roads to these three
sites on October 14 to determine where they are clear and
capable of supporting a steady flow of supply conveys.

Air Drops
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7. (C) The U.S. military currently has 51 pallets of food,
water and blankets ready at Baghram air field to supply air
drops from C-130s to earthquake survivors in areas relief
teams cannot access by road. Military assessment teams in
Blackhawks conducted surveys of possible drop zones on
October 12, but the situation of these isolated survivors is
so desperate that Pakistani military officials have requested
that the U.S.conduct blind drops. Ambassador supports this
position. U.S. C-130s air drop operations should begin on
October 14.

Alternate Air Bases
--------------


8. (C) After some confusion as to the genesis of the
concept of establishing a separate base of operations for
Task Force Griffen (Note: As a result of a communication
garble, the USG thought that the GOP came up with the idea of
moving U.S. milair flights to a designated air field, while
the GOP believed that the USG had formally requested a
separate air field. End note.) U.S. military planners are
now examining whether it makes sense to move some U.S. air
assets to alternate bases, as operations at Qasim and
Chaklala are reaching capacity.

Coordinating with Other Donors
--------------


9. (C) The UN Disaster Assistance Center (UNDAC) has now
organized sector cluster groups, which are establishing
websites to improve coordination. A UN Humanitarian
Information Center team should be set up by October 14. Post
representatives at the daily UNDAC coordination meeting came
away concerned that there is no comprehensive picture of the
distribution of relief supplies. ODRP will try to link the
UN and NGOs into Pakistani military channels in order to
improve tracking of the movement of humanitarian relief
materials. Another emboff officer attending the October 13
UNDAC meeting reported a dramatic change in atmosphere from
the previous day, with NGO representatives increasingly
frustrated by a lack of coordination with the GOP. Relief
agencies cannot get slots for flights to bring in relief
cargoes. The GOP sent an unprepared MFA officer to the
October 13 session, rather than the officials who had
participated the day before. The MFA officer had no answers
to the NGOs' questions, saying only that he would try to have
responses by the following day. UN U/SYG Jan Egeland arrived
October 13; in public statements calling for the
international community to increase its assistance, he
indirectly suggested that the Pakistani relief effort was
failing.

Return to Muzzafarabad
--------------


10. (SBU) An emboff who had been in the devastated city of
Muzzafarabad October 11 returned two days later to find a
city reborn: people on the streets, tractors and other
earth-moving equipment moving about, volunteer relief workers
from Pakistan proper distributing food supplies from Sindh
from the back of jingle trucks. Much of the credit for this
transformation goes to the Punjabi police, who arrived late
October 12 and immediately began to restore order amongst
chaos.



11. (U) Kabul minimize considered.
CROCKER