Opportunity in Tragedy?

The world has been in a heightened state of readiness in regard to international emergency-relief operations ever since the December 26 tsunami struck South and Southeast Asia, and more recently since Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the US Gulf Coast.

Let's hope the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India learned something from the experience of those two previous catastrophes and can avoid the mistakes associated with an inadequate early response, inaccurate assessment and lack of coordination between national governments, all of which led to needless suffering.

The idea should be to ensure a quick and generous worldwide response - in terms of search-and-rescue operations, emergency medical assistance and management of the newly homeless - a response that is coordinated with national rescue efforts. Victims, most of them trapped under rubble, rarely survive longer than the first few days following an earthquake.

For this latest quake, the smooth coordination between international and domestic relief efforts will make the crucial difference between life and death, given the fact that it struck in remote mountainous areas of the disputed region of Kashmir, which straddles the border between Pakistan and India.

It is a pity that the political sensitivities existing between the two nuclear powers, long bogged down in their dispute over Kashmir, have prevented Islamabad from accepting offers of emergency relief and rescue from New Delhi. India - whose death toll is less than 1,000, compared with more than 30,000 and rising for Pakistan at press time - could contribute so much more, given its neighbouring proximity.

At this stage, the full extent of the horrific event, which has claimed entire communities, has yet to unfold fully. Once it does, Pakistan will need all of the assistance it can get from the international community, even from India.

Perhaps Pakistan does have valid historical reasons for wanting to decline aid from India, even in this hour of desperate need. But it would take an extraordinary amount of cynicism on its part to spurn Indian gestures of goodwill while Pakistani victims are fighting for their very lives underneath the rubble. Survivors are desperately struggling with homelessness and a lack of basic necessities like food, medicine and sanitation.

Reports are that survivors are facing a number of immediate problems - freezing night-time temperatures, scarcity of food, a shortage of shelter and non-existent healthcare - requiring a response that may not arrive soon enough. No individual government can ever rise alone to the gargantuan challenges in the aftermath of a natural disaster of this magnitude.

But this does not mean that what Pakistan accepts from India is charity, because Pakistan can return the favour. While some affected areas in Pakistan are more easily accessible to Indian rescuers and relief supplies, and vice versa. Desperate victims, regardless of nationality, deserve effective and timely assistance from anyone who is able to help.

It may be wishful thinking, but by offering mutual assistance, this humanitarian crisis could very well turn out to be the most important confidence-building measure in the history of Pakistani-Indian relations. In the aftermath of last year's tsunami that killed about 250,000 - most of them in Indonesia's restive Aceh province - some good did come about: the Indonesian government and separatist rebels in Aceh agreed to a cease-fire that paved the way to a peace agreement that remains in force today.

Both Pakistan and India may find in this shared crisis, with their deeply felt sense of loss and grief, a unique opportunity for developing a sense of solidarity and begin to regard each other in a new and positive light. Despite the differences between the two countries, the citizens of each belong to a common humanity that is capable of goodness and generosity.