Special Envoy for South Asia Earthquake stresses the urgent need for quake survivors to be helped through winter

The United Nations Special Envoy for the South Asia Earthquake, George H. W. Bush, says supply lines for relief goods must be kept open so that the lives of earthquake survivors can be saved during the current harsh winter.
"Prime needs are for the relief efforts to continue to get the survivors through a predicted severe winter and then help the people with reconstruction," the former President of the United States said in Islamabad on Tuesday.

"You've got to admire the spirit of some of these people in the camp. They want to go back to rebuild and I'm very impressed with that," said the Special Envoy, after spending time with some survivors living in a tent camp in Pakistan's capital.

In the camp, President Bush was shown United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) schools-in-a-box, which are being used extensively in tent schools in all the camps housing the earthquake survivors. He met some of schoolchildren, sat in one of the school sessions, and also spoke with some of the teachers.

President Bush said he was impressed with the work being done on the ground by the United Nations agencies, which are trying to save lives, and he commended the determination and resilience of the earthquake survivors he met.

The Special Envoy was speaking as he concluded a two-day visit to Pakistan. President Bush arrived in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday and immediately held talks with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.

A planned helicopter trip to Muzaffarabad, one of the worst-affected towns in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir, was cancelled on Tuesday morning because of bad weather. "Even though I didn't get the chance to get to the countryside, in the mountains, what I saw today at least gives me a little window on how these families are living. There is a human face on this tragedy," he explained.

On the exact nature of his role as the Special Envoy for the South Asia Earthquake, President Bush said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan would like him to help Pakistan get the monies that had been pledged by donors towards earthquake recovery and reconstruction.

For further information and media assistance, please contact,
Ben Malor, UN Humanitarian Spokesman, Pakistan
UN - OCHA, Sector E7, Street 11, House 124, Islamabad
Cell phone: +92 (0)301 532 3985 or Email : malor@un.org