Talks start on opening Kashmir border for quake aid

Talks start on opening Kashmir border for quake aid

Zarar Khan, Associated Press/Muzaffarabad, Pakistan

Archrivals India and Pakistan started talks on an unprecedented
opening of their disputed Kashmir border to help victims of the
massive earthquake believed to have killed about 80,000 people,
officials said Saturday.

Foreign Ministry officials were meeting in Islamabad to
discuss whether to allow Kashmiris to cross the heavily
militarized Line of Control, the cease-fire line that divides the
Himalayan region that the South Asian rivals have fought two wars
over.

Since Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suggested
allowing Kashmiris to help each other recover from the Oct. 8
quake, both governments have shown a willingness to open the
border but have failed to iron out differences in their proposals
over how to do it -- reflecting enduring suspicions between them.

The 7.6-magnitude temblor killed about 78,000 people in
Pakistan, most of them in the Pakistan-controlled portion of
Kashmir. More than 1,300 people died on the Indian side. An
estimated 3.3 million others were left homeless and fears for
their lives are growing as winter closes in.

Pakistan will host a conference of international donors next
month to raise funds for reconstruction of quake-devastated
areas, state-run Pakistan Television reported on Saturday. United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to attend the
meeting in the capital on Nov. 19, it said.

The latest in hundreds of aftershocks struck early Saturday,
with a magnitude of 5.5 and centered in the quake zone, the U.S.
Geological Survey reported. There were no immediate reports of
damage or injuries.

The head of the Indian delegation, Dilip Sinha, told reporters
on arriving in Pakistan late Friday that the atmosphere between
Pakistan and India was positive and that "we hope to have useful
talks".

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam also
expressed optimism: "Pakistan and India can reach an agreement
after Saturday's talks for opening the Line of Control for
Kashmiris so that they can meet with their relatives and friends
without facing procedural difficulties," she said.

Crossing the land border in Kashmir was forbidden for 58 years
until Pakistan and India agreed to a twice-monthly bus service
earlier this year, one of the most tangible results so far of a
two-year peace process to bury their history of acrimony and also
settle their competing claims to Kashmir.

India is setting up three relief camps on its side of the
border where Pakistani quake victims could get medical help, food
and relief supplies, but Pakistan says it wants to open up five
crossing points, and would be willing to let Kashmiris from the
Indian side cross to its side.

Opening the border is a particularly sensitive issue for India
because of a 16-year Islamic insurgency in its part of Kashmir by
militants seeking independence or the region's merger with
Pakistan.

The talks could yet bog down over issues including what kind
of documentation people would need to cross the border.

Meanwhile, alarm is rising about the aid effort. The United
Nations is warning that its helicopters ferrying desperately
needed food, tents and medicine will be grounded within a week
unless donors make good on pledges of hundreds of millions of
dollars.

Jan Vandemoortele, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in
Pakistan, said Friday that opening the Kashmir border could help
the relief effort -- if not solve the logistical challenges posed
by the formidable terrain.

Winter is expected within weeks, endangering survivors who
lack shelter and a dependable food supply. Pakistani
meteorologists are forecasting a much harsher than normal winter
in the high Himalayan mountains.

Mohammed Hanif at the Pakistan Meteorological Department said
it was expecting 5.52 meters (18 feet) of snow in the region this
winter, compared to three meters (10 feet) during a normal
winter. Average temperatures would also be a few degrees below
normal, at times dipping as low as minus 20 Celsius, he said.

Queen Rania of Jordan, an envoy for UNICEF, said the world
community had a "moral obligation to do more to help victims of
the quake, including thousands of orphaned children."

"If we do not act now, thousands more innocent lives are going
to die," she said during a visit on Saturday to Muzaffarabad in
Pakistan's part of Kashmir.