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Aid mission unites friend and foe

By Nazila Fathi in Kerman Ben Wyld and Matt Wade
December 29, 2003

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RAAF personnel load relief supplies at Richmond air base yesterday. Photo: Dean Sewell

Iran has opened its doors to the world as 21 nations rush aid to its earthquake victims, but authorities fear the death toll from the disaster could climb to 40,000.

Dozens of international shipments and relief flights - including an RAAF plane that left Sydney last night - are carrying rescue workers, doctors, tents, sniffer dogs and cash to help with the world's deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.

The US cast aside its branding of the Islamic republic an "axis of evil" state by sending military plane-loads of aid, and it held rare talks with a government it has shunned diplomatically for two decades.

Iran, which once branded the US "the great Satan", now says it welcomes the American aid and that of all other nations except its enemy Israel. Its stand is in stark contrast to 1990, when it rejected help after another quake killed as many as 50,000 Iranians.

As temperatures dropped to freezing yesterday, survivors in the flattened city of Bam slept in tents or under blankets. The ancient city has no power, running water or gas, and most residents are homeless. Tens of thousands of the injured crowded field hospitals or lay helplessly in the streets. The United Nations said last night the search for survivors would end today, adding that international rescue teams were no longer needed.

In a televised address, President Mohammad Khatami said the rush of help to Iran showed affection and kindness prevailed in the world despite so many atrocities and violent acts. But he admitted Iran could not cope alone.

"Everyone is doing their best to help, but the disaster is so huge that I believe no matter how much is done we cannot meet the people's expectations," he said.

Amid the chaos - and at least one report of thugs stealing relief supplies - aid workers resorted to throwing blankets from the back of trucks driven at high speed through the city.

"The people are practically standing naked to the cold on the streets because they've lost everything they had," said Roland Schlachter, heading a team of 10 rescuers from the Swiss Corps for Humanitarian Aid.

Iranian officials said at least 13,000 bodies had been recovered but authorities said at least 25,000 people died in Friday's 12-second quake, which destroyed about 70 per cent of Bam's buildings. "As more bodies are pulled out, we fear the death toll may reach as high as 40,000," said Akbar Alavi, the mayor of Kerman, the provincial capital. "An unbelievable human disaster has occurred."

There were burials, but they were swift and brutal. Broad trenches were dug with earthmoving equipment to accommodate hundreds of bodies at a time.

Muhammad Karimi brought the bodies of his wife and four-year-old daughter to one cemetery. "This is the apocalypse. There is nothing but devastation and debris," he said.

Bam is a tourist attraction and the US said one American was killed and his wife injured as they visited the city's 2000-year-old citadel, destroyed in the quake.

An RAAF Hercules aircraft left Richmond air base last night, carrying blankets, tarpaulins, plastic sheeting, emergency shelters, water purification tablets, jerry cans, stoves for cooking and heating, and medical kits.

This is on top of $2 million relief and emergency aid.

Australians have been quick to respond to relief appeals, opened by branches of the Red Cross, World Vision and UNICEF.

"We estimate, in the first 24 hours, that $100,000 came in," said Nathan Rabe, from the Australian Red Cross.

George Newhouse, a Waverley councillor and Jewish Labor Forum executive, urged Jews to donate despite Iran's stand on Israel.

The New York Times and agencies







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