GCC countries donate 400 million dollars to rebuild Bam

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CAIRO/RIYADH - Member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have donated 400 million dollars to help rebuild the quake- devastated Iranian city of Bam. Kuwaiti finance minister Mahmoud Abdel Khalek Nouri, announcing the news late Monday, said the idea was initiated by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

The Iranian government has promised to rebuild the ancient city, which was almost completely flattened by the powerful quake that struck Friday. The city was near the epicentre in southeastern Iran.

Confirmed deaths by Tuesday had risen to 28,000, with hope for any more survivors in the rubble all but abandoned.

“A joint, specialised delegation from GCC countries will visit Iran soon to make agreements with concerned parties to specify the projects to be financed from this fund,” Nouri said.

BAM, Iran - The death toll for Friday’s earthquake in southeastern Iran may rise as high as 50,000, government officials told Reuters on Tuesday. “We are expecting the death toll to reach around 50,000,” a senior Interior Ministry official said.

”If we consider that, on average, five people lived in each house we can say the death toll will reach 50,000.”

Such a figure would make the earthquake, around the ancient Silk Road city of Bam 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of Tehran, one of the most lethal natural disasters of recent times.

Friday’s tremor, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck just before dawn, killing entire families as they slept.

State television reported overnight that 28,000 bodies had so far been recovered and buried.

The Interior Ministry official said 80 percent of Bam’s mud-brick buildings had been flattened and that many outlying villages had not yet been fully searched by rescuers.

Aid workers pleaded on Tuesday for clothing, blankets and medicines for tens of thousands left bereaved and homeless.

As search and rescue teams began to abandon the hunt for survivors trapped for days in freezing temperatures beneath the rubble, relief workers said operations had moved to a new phase.

“We’re in a transition period from search and rescue to humanitarian assistance,” Jesper Lund, team leader of United Nations Disaster And Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) which was coordinating relief efforts from a military base outside of Bam.

Armies of street cleaners using brooms, shovels and wheelbarrows began to sweep up debris in near deserted streets.

Assad Najafi, 24, laden with merchandise salvaged from his car spares shop, said: “This town has been destroyed. I’m taking my belongings to Tehran.”

The scale of the disaster, which toppled virtually every building in the city and outlying villages, prompted swift pledges of aid, even from several countries, which have shaky ties with the Islamic Republic.

Washington, which has labelled Tehran as part of an “axis of evil” and is in turn referred to as the “Great Satan” by hardliners in Iran, has sent several planeloads of medical and humanitarian supplies as well as relief experts.

US military planes, which began arriving at the weekend, were the first to land in Iran since the 1981 hostage crisis in which 52 Americans were held for 444 days at the US embassy.

Six of Iran’s Arab Gulf neighbours late on Monday pledged $400 million to help Tehran with relief and rebuilding. Non-Arab Iran has had uneasy relations with many Gulf neighbours since the 1979 revolution although ties have improved in recent years.

Despite the massive international response, aid workers said more was needed to assist an estimated 100,000 people left homeless and thousands more injured in the quake.

“There has been quite a bit of aid coming in but there is not enough. There are still gaps to be filled,” said Rob MacGillivray, emergency adviser for Save The Children in Bam.

“There are still a significant number of people without shelter, particularly in outlying areas. There are too many people staying in one tent. We want to try to thin the numbers down so living conditions are reasonable for the circumstances.”

MacGillivray said restoring primary healthcare services was a priority after Bam’s two main hospitals were destroyed by the quake. Blankets, children’s clothes, soap, cooking sets and large cans to store drinking water were also badly needed.