US embassy cable - 05NEWDELHI8751

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 008751 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PBTS, KISL, PTER, EAID, MOPS, PK, IN, Kashmir, Earthquake 
SUBJECT: KASHMIRIS QUIETLY APPRECIATIVE OF INDIAN ARMY AND 
GOVERNMENT EARTHQUAKE AID 
 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Geoff Pyatt for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) 
 
1. (C) Summary:  Indian Kashmiris have been quietly 
appreciative of the way the Army, J&K state government, 
Indian NGOs, and Indian businesses and citizens provided 
relief following the October 8 earthquake.  Immediately 
following the quake, soldiers threw themselves into rescue 
efforts and opened Army stores to hungry survivors.  The Army 
also distributed 21,000 tents in the days following the 
quake, while private donors also joined in by sending 
clothing and needed items.  During a recent visit, we saw the 
state government in action, disbursing grants to ensure 
shelter needs before winter, although some villagers to whom 
we spoke complained that the bureaucratics were too 
cumbersome.  While India was not hit nearly as badly as the 
Pakistani side by the October 8 quake, people with whom we 
spoke in Kashmir were relieved that the Indian government had 
provided sufficiently for the peoples' immediate and 
longer-term needs, and were shocked at the disparity they saw 
on the Pakistani side, although they are too cowed to say so 
publicly for fear of terrorist retribution.  One Kashmiri 
contact summed it up:  "Nowadays, in private, we thank God we 
are Indians." End Summary. 
 
WE'RE WITH THE GOVERNMENT AND WE'RE HERE TO HELP 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
2. (C) We visited Srinagar and Uri November 7-9 to check on 
how Kashmiris view earthquake relief efforts.  The senior 
police official in Srinagar, Javed Makdoumi, told us how the 
state administration had been slow in the first 12 hours to 
register how severe the quake had been because the affected 
areas are over 110 kilometers from Srinagar along a winding 
mountain road.  However, as death tolls in outlying villages 
started to pour in, and as images from Pakistan were beamed 
across Indian TV, the J&K government began to marshall relief 
supplies and to pour people and materiel into Uri and 
Tangdarh.  Within 72 hours of the quake, rescue operations 
were complete and relief efforts began.  Makdoumi said he 
himself had corralled hundreds of trucks to start carrying 
relief supplies from Indian Air Force bases in the Valley for 
transport to Uri.  Makdoumi said the GOI through the Army, 
state government, and central government, as well as relying 
on charity marshalled from other state governments throughout 
India, had furnished ample relief within only ten days of the 
quake.  As a result, blankets, food, tents, and medicine were 
no longer needed.  The GOI was shifting its focus to 
establishing 50,000 rudimentary shelters so its people could 
survive the harsh Himalayan winter.  To ensure swift 
completion of the effort before the first snows in December, 
the GOI was distributing 1.6 billion rupees in grants ranging 
from 30k to 100k Rupees.  Every contact we spoke to praised 
the Indian Army's immediate disaster assistance, including 
rescue of trapped victims, medical aid, supply of food and 
tents, and on-going efforts to rehabilitate shattered areas. 
 
THE QUICKEST FIX:  CASH, AND LOTS OF IT 
--------------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) We were able to corroborate Makdoumi's claims when we 
visited Uri November 8.  As GOI helicopters regularly 
clattered as they landed and took-off from a nearby helipad, 
we talked to J&K government Relief Commissioner Bashir Ahmed 
Runyal, who was "forward deployed" to a makeshift set of huts 
where his staff were busy cutting checks for immediate 
reconstruction relief.  Working with a liaison from the 
military (who also likely stood watch against possible 
corruption), Runyal and his people were verifying land 
records and voter registrations against their own assessments 
of damage to determine if villagers were properly entitled to 
receive compensation.  They also were logging in computers 
records of houses damaged versus those destroyed, as payments 
differed depending on that determination.  From the calls we 
overheard, it was clear the state government is fully seized 
of the matter and willing to devote the necessary resources. 
We also waded through a crowd of villagers from outlying 
areas who were busy checking on their claims.  One villager 
told us the money was definitely flowing, and they had come 
in person from a very remote village to see how they could 
get their share.  The relief hut was a hive of activity as 
the civilian administration worked to meet a target of 100 
percent compensation by December 1.  Runyal said it was 
unlikely they would meet that target, but they would get 
close to 90 percent; the remainder were cases that involved 
property disputes, inheritance questions, disputes over 
whether the houses were damaged or destroyed, etc.  In 
addition, the government is scouring North India for 
waterproof sheeting, tin roofing material, and other needed 
supplies so villagers can spend the money they would be given 
without being price gouged.  Runyal added that 10,000 out of 
22,000 houses in Uri district had been destroyed; on the day 
we saw him, compensation had already been paid to 50 percent 
of those who presented themselves.  When we stopped at a 
village outside Uri, residents told us the Army had provided 
them tents immediately after the quake, local administrative 
officials were assessing damage, and solicitations of bribes 
to upgrade "damaged" houses to "destroyed" status to receive 
bigger checks had already started. 
 
FOCUSING ON THE MOST IMMEDIATE NEED 
----------------------------------- 
 
4. (C) The senior J&K government official during the Valley's 
winter, Divisional Commissioner BB Vyas, told us the GOI is 
focusing its reconstruction efforts on the hamlet of 
Tangdarh, which starts receiving heavy snow (as much as eight 
feet) in late November.  Ninety percent of houses were 
totally destroyed in Tangdarh, of whom 90 percent of 
claimants had received compensation.  In addition to 1,000 
pre-fabricated structures from the Army, the GOI shifted 870 
similar structures from the earthquake-afflicted town of Bhuj 
in Gujarat to use as shelters for the community until better 
housing can be built next spring.  GOI and J&K government 
engineers would soon supervise their installation in 
Tangdarh. The J&K Public Works Department was also building 
104 larger shelters that would serve as community centers or 
schools once people disperse to more permanent housing next 
spring. In Uri, where snowfall was much less (six inches or 
less), and melted more quickly, the GOI had the luxury of a 
little more time and a less urgent need for robust shelter. 
Therefore, it was focusing more on cash disbursements there. 
 
COMPETING FOR CREDIT...AND VOTES 
-------------------------------- 
 
5. (C) While the Army and civilian administration have worked 
well together, the Congress party has also funnelled relief 
to the area through the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, although the 
relief was processed through local Congress politician Taj 
Mohiuddin only to Congress party supporters.  We drove past 
the mob outside Mohiuddin's house on our way back from Uri. 
Divisional Commissioner Vyas told us that the National 
Conference had also established a relief network for its 
supporters, while the Hurriyat's relief had been a few token 
trucks of blankets in the first day or two after the quake, 
reflecting its lack of a base, in his view.  The PDP, being 
the party in power at the time of the earthquake, had not 
established its own parallel relief effort. 
 
NGOs PROMISE MUCH, DELIVER SOME 
------------------------------- 
 
6. (C) The Army's NGO relief coordinator in Uri, COL PK Singh 
of the Maratha Light Infantry, told us the Army had 
coordinated foreign and domestic NGOs efforts in an effort to 
spread them across the entire affected area, especially in 
remote areas.  Major international charities had burned a 
good bit of time in the early going assessing damage and 
taking pictures for their campaigns back at home, but then 
had begun some relief operations and had agreed to "adopt" 
villages at the Army's request.  In any case, he claimed, 
"the Army and only the Army" had conducted relief efforts for 
the first 15 days after the quake in some of the most remote 
areas.  Others had merely done some token work in villages 
closest to the roads, took pictures, then left.  COL Singh 
singled out for praise Catholic Relief Services as having 
been the most effective, serious, sincere, and systematic of 
all the large NGOs. 
 
THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD... 
--------------------------------- 
 
7. (C) Kashmiris were horrified at what had happened across 
the Line-of-Control not only for the scale of the tragedy but 
also for the reaction of the Pakistani government.  PDP 
politicians Moulvi Iftiqar Ansari and Sadiq Ali told us that 
the tragedy had really revealed to people in the Valley the 
operational limitations of the Pakistani government and Army. 
 BBC journalist Altaf Hussein said it was sad to see that 
Pakistan's helicopter capabilities were so limited as to 
require prompt American help.  Police official Makdoumi told 
us, "Now we no longer say Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live 
Pakistan), nor do we say Azadi (Independence); we just seek 
peace with honor."  One writer in separatist-friendly 
"Greater Kashmir" newspaper wrote what was commonly felt and 
expressed -- including to us -- after the quake, ie, that 
what happened in insurgent-hotspot Muzzafarabad was "Divine 
punishment" for fostering terrorism and violence over the 
past fifteen years of insurgency.  All were buzzing about 
unconfirmed yet broadly circulated rumors that the Pakistani 
Army had shored up its own defenses for fear of attack for 48 
hours after the quake, even as the Indian Army was opening 
its store houses and digging through houses.  One police 
contact told us quietly, "Now, when we are alone or in 
private, we express thanks to God that we are Indians.  We 
dare not do so publicly." 
 
COMMENT: LUMBERING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION 
----------------------------------------- 
 
8. (C) The Indian government is often likened to an elephant: 
 slow to get moving, but unstoppable when underway.  The 
civilian administration was somewhat slow to move off the 
mark when tragedy struck, but we saw a well-run relief 
operation that combined civilian, military, and NGO efforts 
to help Kashmiris survive the winter and rebuild next summer. 
 The GOI and J&K government are pouring money into the 
affected area, providing yet another opportunity for them to 
cement their "hearts and minds" gains stemming from the 
successful 2002 state elections and former Chief Minister 
Mufti's "Healing Touch" efforts.  The challenge now clearly 
rests on the new Congress-led government of Chief Minister 
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has already moved quickly to ensure 
undisrupted relief efforts despite the transfer of power. 
The Indian Army has also come out of this tragedy with a 
transformed image in the minds of Kashmiris.  As with the 
tsunami, the Indian state displayed robust disaster 
 
SIPDIS 
preparedness capabilities, with the armed forces in the lead. 
 END COMMENT. 
BLAKE