Kashmiri villagers unite to survive

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Sunday (AFP) - There may no longer be any government to speak of, but in Kashmir's earthquake-ravaged mountains, villagers are taking order into their own hands, making sure the neediest are fed.

A deep solidarity reigns in the hamlets of Pakistani Kashmir, ensuring survival for far-flung communities where government assistance is yet to come and which aid helicopters have never reached.

Villagers who have come to Pakistani Kashmir's devastated capital Muzaffarabad from the hills some 40 kilometers (25 miles) away say they have lived off donations, often from relatives, that are channeled through to those who have nothing.

And sometimes, they are willing to go without to ensure the most vulnerable are taken care of.

Dozens of trucks, decorated in gaudy colors in typical South Asian fashion, race in each day to Muzaffarabad, handing out to anyone, anywhere the food, tents and bedding so needed in a region that has 3.3 million homeless after the massive October 8 earthquake.

The trucks are often met with mad scrambles, with people taking whatever scraps they can to make it through until their next chance.

But in Monassa village, residents decided that whatever comes their way should be divided up equally. They created a committee to distribute the donations fairly among the 65 surviving families.

"We have the names of the families. When donations come in, we go to them and make deliveries door to door," said villager Nadim, 25.

When a truck from the UN World Food Program came through with biscuits, the committee was ready to split them up. But the elders said no - they should go to the more distant hamlets.

"It's really hard for people way up in the mountains. They can't be reached by car so let's go and find them," Nadim remembers the elders saying.

A bit further up in the mountains, the 15 families in Baglota have a similar pact. In the town, bags of donated rice and sugar are stored under a mat amid the rubble. It's also the supply depository for 30 more families living in the mountains and cut off from the world.

Hassan Zahoor, an 18-year-old student, is in charge of distribution and he tries to make sure it's done fairly.

"Each family gets 10 kilos of sugar and rice. For the time being there's enough for 15 days. For water, everyone goes to get it from a well that's an hour by foot," he said.

The aid came from relatives in Rawalpindi near the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

Everyone in the village also retrieved whatever plates and dishes they could salvage from the ruins and are sharing them. They pitched in to buy three tents.

In Balandkot village, residents firmly refused an offer of aid brought from visiting university students and instructors in Islamabad, redirecting them to a hamlet on the other side of the mountain.

"Three villages refused aid. They said they had enough. They talked about the hamlet of Attayasa that you could only reach by climbing the mountain. It was totally destroyed - 10 families completely abandoned," said teacher Arif Khattar, 30.

They asked the survivors of Attayasa to come down to their trucks and the villagers went back with supplies on their backs like Sherpas.

"The big problem is reaching little mountain hamlets that are completely destroyed but still have two or three houses," said World Food Program spokeswoman Mia Turner.

"If it were a flat terrain we could use a helicopter. We were thinking about using donkeys but residents told us that they were dead too," she said.

Even if goods and vehicles seem to be getting through via the village network, what is sorely lacking is tents. Most people are sleeping in the wide open or on makeshift mats despite rains and an approaching winter.

In the village of Balandkot, solidarity showed its limits when it came to tents. When the students came to distribute tents, many hamlets feared that the others would be getting more.