02-23-2006, 05:46 AM
Cartoon backlash grounds quake relief helicopters
12/02/2006 - 17:11:10
The United Nations last week temporarily grounded all helicopters involved in earthquake relief work in northern Pakistan due to growing anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Western media, an official said today.
The helicopters were grounded as a precautionary measure late last week during Ashoura, an important Muslim festival, as sometimes violent protests escalated in the Muslim world, including Pakistan, against the drawings, said Raabya Amjad, a UN spokeswoman in Islamabad.
âFor two days, helicopters were not going up due to security concerns ... due to demonstrations against the Danish cartoons in Islamabad,â Amjad said. âThere have also been demonstrations ... in the earthquake zone, but nothing against UN personnel.â
Amjad said she wasnât sure exactly which days the helicopters were grounded.
She said the grounding restricted deliveries of humanitarian aid to the devastated Kashmir region where survivors of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8 are living in tents and battling a bitterly cold winter. The quake left about 87,000 people dead and around 3.5 million homeless.
The grounding was thoroughly planned and âcreated no hardshipâ for the beleaguered survivors, Amjad said.
The UN said in a statement that the grounding affected âsome minor aspects of the operation,â but it didnât elaborate.
The UN has no plans to withdraw personnel of any nationality from Pakistan in response to the demonstrations, the body said in a statement today.
Denmark has warned its citizens to leave Indonesia, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, and has recalled consular staff from Jakarta, Tehran and Damascus.
Amjad said that while the relief operationâs security in Pakistan remained under review, there were no plans to ground the helicopters again.
UN helicopters have become vital for mountainside villages isolated by snow in Pakistan controlled Kashmir. So far they have moved 11,000 tons of food, 3,000 tons of other supplies and nearly 22,000 people, including aid workers and quake victims needing hospital treatment, according to UN figures.
The cartoons â which were first published in a Danish newspaper and have since appeared in media across Europe around the world â have been condemned by Muslims as blasphemous.
About 1,500 protesters gathered in central Islamabad and another 1,000 rallied in the eastern city of Multan to protest the publication of the cartoons. Some torched Danish flags and effigies of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Protesters also disrupted phone services provided by Norway-based telecommunications company Telenor in the eastern city of Okara by hurling stones at a communications tower there yesterday, police official Mohammed Iqbal said. They also smashed Telenor signs at a bazaar in Okara in retaliation for a Norwegian newspaper publishing the pictures, he said.
12/02/2006 - 17:11:10
The United Nations last week temporarily grounded all helicopters involved in earthquake relief work in northern Pakistan due to growing anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Western media, an official said today.
The helicopters were grounded as a precautionary measure late last week during Ashoura, an important Muslim festival, as sometimes violent protests escalated in the Muslim world, including Pakistan, against the drawings, said Raabya Amjad, a UN spokeswoman in Islamabad.
âFor two days, helicopters were not going up due to security concerns ... due to demonstrations against the Danish cartoons in Islamabad,â Amjad said. âThere have also been demonstrations ... in the earthquake zone, but nothing against UN personnel.â
Amjad said she wasnât sure exactly which days the helicopters were grounded.
She said the grounding restricted deliveries of humanitarian aid to the devastated Kashmir region where survivors of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8 are living in tents and battling a bitterly cold winter. The quake left about 87,000 people dead and around 3.5 million homeless.
The grounding was thoroughly planned and âcreated no hardshipâ for the beleaguered survivors, Amjad said.
The UN said in a statement that the grounding affected âsome minor aspects of the operation,â but it didnât elaborate.
The UN has no plans to withdraw personnel of any nationality from Pakistan in response to the demonstrations, the body said in a statement today.
Denmark has warned its citizens to leave Indonesia, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, and has recalled consular staff from Jakarta, Tehran and Damascus.
Amjad said that while the relief operationâs security in Pakistan remained under review, there were no plans to ground the helicopters again.
UN helicopters have become vital for mountainside villages isolated by snow in Pakistan controlled Kashmir. So far they have moved 11,000 tons of food, 3,000 tons of other supplies and nearly 22,000 people, including aid workers and quake victims needing hospital treatment, according to UN figures.
The cartoons â which were first published in a Danish newspaper and have since appeared in media across Europe around the world â have been condemned by Muslims as blasphemous.
About 1,500 protesters gathered in central Islamabad and another 1,000 rallied in the eastern city of Multan to protest the publication of the cartoons. Some torched Danish flags and effigies of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Protesters also disrupted phone services provided by Norway-based telecommunications company Telenor in the eastern city of Okara by hurling stones at a communications tower there yesterday, police official Mohammed Iqbal said. They also smashed Telenor signs at a bazaar in Okara in retaliation for a Norwegian newspaper publishing the pictures, he said.