|
Iran in Mourning After Killer Quake
TEHRAN,
June 23 (IslamOnline) - Condolences and offers of help flooded Sunday,
June 23, 2002, as a mourning Iran rushed aid to the victims of the
earthquake in the northwest of the country, but said the death toll
was not as heavy as first feared, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
The
Ministry of Interiors sharply revised down the death toll from
Saturday's quake to 230, against an earlier official estimate of 500,
in a statement quoted by state television.
"The
earthquake caused 227 deaths in the Qazvin region and three in
Hamedan, and around 1,000 injured in total," state television
quoted a Ministry statement as saying.
However
the official news agency, IRNA, quoting local officials, said later
that five people had been killed in Zanjan province northwest of
Qazvin, where 126 villages, around Khodabandeh, suffered heavy
damages.
State
radio reported another 10 dead in Qazvin, taking the total to 245.
However,
the armed opposition People's Mujahedin, in a statement sent to AFP in
Nicosia, claimed Tehran was deliberately hiding the true death toll.
The
quake, registering 6.0 on the Richter scale, struck the country early
Saturday, June 22, 2002, devastating scores of mud-brick towns and
villages, including the city of Bouynzahra at its epicenter in Qazvin
province, and leaving thousands homeless.
It
shook eight provinces and the country’s capital, Tehran.
The
Red Crescent organization, assisted by troops and volunteers, many of
them returning to their home regions from jobs in Tehran to help, was
at work in every affected district Sunday.
A
Red Crescent official in Qazvin province said Saturday that 212 bodies
had been dug out of the rubble and had been buried.
President
Mohammad Khatami and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed
their emotions and their solidarity with the victims, and three days
of mourning were declared.
But
front-page stories in Iranian dailies Sunday criticized the
authorities for a lack of preparation in a country which experiences
daily tremors. In the affected region, isolated protests also occurred
at the delay in sending aid, AFP said.
Messages
of condolence and offers of help from abroad included one from U.S.
President George W. Bush, who has branded Iran part of an "axis
of evil."
Pope
John Paul II told several thousand Catholics in Rome he hoped for a
show of "swift and generous international solidarity,"
adding that he was praying for the victims and their families.
He
also expressed his "deep sadness" in a message to the
Iranian authorities, the Vatican said.
UN
Secretary General, Kofi Annan, was also "deeply saddened by the
important loss of lives and the extensive damage that resulted from
the disaster," a statement from the international body said.
The
representative here of the UN children's fund, UNICEF, Suleiman
Diallo, said a UN mission was going to the Qazvin region Sunday,
"and will make a report for the different United Nations agencies
so that we can provide whatever aid is needed."
Diallo
said UNICEF had made arrangements for aid including blankets to be
sent quickly by plane to the quake victims, AFP said.
China,
France, Germany, Kuwait, Japan, Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan have
also sent their condolences to Iran and most offered aid.
Nasrallah
Kamalian, head of the geophysical institute at Tehran University, told
AFP Sunday there had been 48 aftershocks in the 24 hours following the
quake, three of which measured between 4.0 and 5.0 on the Richter
scale, though half were below 3.0.
This
was normal, he said, adding that tremors could continue for another
three weeks.
The
People's Mujahedin claimed the death toll had reached 849 early
Sunday, and charged authorities had falsified the figures after
"protests and public rage ... against the incompetence of the
government and its agencies in providing relief for the stricken
areas."
|
