Quake Aid Airlifts Under Way

The U.N. World Food Program began a major airlift of emergency supplies to earthquake-stricken parts of Pakistan, where survivors remain desperately short of food and shelter. The United States, meanwhile, shifted military aircraft from neighboring Afghanistan to the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Several countries increased their promises of aid as the death toll rose, while thousands of survivors in Pakistan huddled in tents or in the open with inadequate resources for a third day.

"There are people who are trapped, and the people outside that are sleeping in the cold and the rain ... the only company they have is the screams and pleas for help from those people buried under the rubble, and they have no cranes and no equipment to dig them out," Waseem Yaqub of the British charity Islamic Relief told the BBC for heading for Kashmir with a cargo plane full of blankets and tents.

Indonesia, still in the early stages of rebuilding from the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami that killed 131,000 there, will send a medical team and other emergency supplies to Islamabad, government spokesman Siti Rahayu Hidayati said.

Japan responded on Tuesday to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's appeal for more international aid with a pledge of $20 million, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.

Hosoda said Japan was ready to provide more help upon request. Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Tokyo was considering dispatching helicopters for disaster relief.

Kuwait promised $100 million to Pakistan, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The Singapore government on Tuesday pledged $200,000.

The U.N. airlift of supplies began Monday night, and more planes were to arrive Tuesday with medical supplies, generators and high-energy biscuits, the United Nations said.

"It is vital to get to the survivors as soon as possible," WFP chief of operations Jean-Jacques Graisse said in a statement.

Desperate Pakistanis huddled against the cold and some looted food stores because aid still had not reached remote areas of Kashmir, the center of Saturday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake, which flattened villages, cut off power and water.

Musharraf said his government was doing its best to respond to the crisis. He appealed for international help, particularly for cargo helicopters to reach remote areas cut off by landslides.

"We are doing whatever is humanly possible," Musharraf said.

Australia increased its financial aid from $4.2 million to $7.6 million but said the tragedy was too distant to send aircraft or other logistical support.
"Pakistan has a very substantial defense force so it does have people it can deploy pretty quickly," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. "But having said that, this (disaster) has covered an enormous area. It's going to be pretty difficult for them."

Eight U.S. helicopters — five Chinook transport choppers and three Black Hawks for heavy lifting — were diverted from the war in neighboring Afghanistan. They carried supplies, tarpaulins and equipment, including high-tech cameras for finding buried survivors.

"Bagram (airfield) is an enabling force to support the guys in Pakistan," O'Hara told The Associated Press. "The resupply will be ongoing the entire time we're there, that won't stop."

The heavy lifting capacity of the big American helicopters means they can carry larger amounts of cargo up to the earthquake zone and bring back greater numbers of the injured, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

Three U.S. military cargo planes arrived in Islamabad on Monday with blankets, tents, prepared meals, plastic sheeting and water. Four more flights were expected, including one carrying a disaster response team.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday he has no concerns that the shift of some supplies to earthquake relief in Pakistan would interfere with military operations in neighboring Afghanistan.

During a visit to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Rumsfeld called the earthquake "a tragedy of enormous proportions." In Pakistan, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Washington had pledged up to $50 million in aid.

Afghanistan, itself a major recipient of international aid, sent four military helicopters and one plane Tuesday with four tons of medicine, 20 tons of dried food, and aid teams including 34 doctors and nurses.

"I'm very happy to go to help our brothers and sisters in Pakistan who are affected by this disaster," said Maj. Shafiqa Makdum, a nurse with the fledgling Afghan National Army, in an interview at Kabul's military hospital before departing.

"I was a refugee in Pakistan for five years and came home after the fall of the Taliban — the Pakistani people are very nice," she said.

Canada committed $17 million, International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll announced, in addition to an earlier $255,080 pledge that was criticized at home as paltry.

Some of the money will go to dispatching Canadian military aircraft loaded with blankets to the affected area.

India and Pakistan set aside their often-bitter rivalry, with Pakistan saying it would accept India's offer of aid for victims in the Pakistan-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said there was no problem accepting aid from its rival.

Other countries that have pledged financial aid include Azerbaijan, Britain, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and Thailand.