US embassy cable - 05ISLAMABAD15513

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, Earthquake 
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 
------------------- 
 
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 
--------- 
 
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