Natural disasters of one form or other have been striking different parts of the world. Amidst death and destruction, a hectic diplomatic activity is going on. Times of tragedy triggered by both nature and humans have also brought enemies together. Disasters have also silenced noisy global issues and bilateral problems temporarily. The G7 summit in Gleneagles was preparing to nail U.S on head for its villainous role in polluting the atmosphere. In that critical moment came the shocking news of serial bomb blasts in London. The underground devastation had thrown everything into a corner. Thus Bush escaped from the collective attack of rest of the G7 against America’s dubious distinction of being single largest air polluter. Soon after the information of London mayhem reached, G7 leaders stood solidly behind Tony Blair, sparing America.
Earthquake, tsunami, hurricanes and torrential rains which brought large-scale loss of lives and destruction of wealth recently are grim reminder about the need for unity. Of course the offer of inimical countries to the affected nations was generous. Cuba and Venezuela were willing to help the United States during the recent Katrina and Rita cyclones. Both the nations came forward to share their expertise in disaster management. It is another matter that the U.S refused the help for obvious reasons.
Pakistan was one of the first countries to sent essential items to the Gujarat earthquake victims in 2001. In reciprocity, Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat has now offered help to his favourite enemy – Pakistan to tide over earthquake crisis. Losing more than 30,000 people to the 7.6 ritcher scale earthquake, Pakistan has the satisfaction of India’s support in carrying out relief and rescue operations for its people. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh immediately after the deadly earthquake made a telephone call to President Mushraff expressing willingness from India’s side to provide relief materials. India’s proposal for joint rescue and relief operation was rejected by Pakistan.
China has sent a 49 member rescue team to provide the required assistance. It has also pledged $6.2 million financial aid and 15 million tons of food to Pakistan. European Union has promised £2.5m aid. Mushraff appealed to the NATO countries to divert some of its forces from Afghanistan to relief measures in Pakistan. He requested international community to offer cargo helicopters to transport essentials to the cutoff areas.
Nature plays a pivotal role in international relations too. Calamities created by nature have the potential to break or make diplomatic channels. It even catalysed some countries to achieve freedom from external rulers and internal horrors. Disastrous cyclone in 1970 helped the Bangladesh freedom movement to takeoff. Nicaragua witnessed armed revolt against the government of the day in 1972 after severe earthquake which had destroyed half of the capital city – Managua. Lack of proper relief work by the government led to the uprising which finally overthrew the government.
United States rushed plane loads of relief materials to its ‘axis of evil’ – Iran when it was struck by earthquake in 2003. Turkey and Greece, the 1970s rivals helped each other during earthquakes leaving the longtime animosities at the back.
India was proactively involved in the reconstruction of tsunami struck areas of Sri Lanka. Soon after the tragedy struck the coastal areas of Asia, India sent its naval ships with liberal donations of food, medicines and clothes. The tsunami gave an opportunity to India to demonstrate its ability during crisis and also to help neighboring countries to overcome the crisis. India flexed its muscle during this crisis period to show it to the world that it is no more in begging state but donating stage. Some people even proclaimed that India reached the superpower when it donated money and material to the other tsunami affected countries.
This time the earthquake had struck the heart of south Asia’s trouble spot – Kashmir. Both India’s Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir were severely affected by the shift and clash of tectonic plates. The Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)) is sending its chief Yaseen Malik to Pakistan to hand over Rs. one crore as their contribution for earthquake relief work.
In the holy month of Ramzan, this large scale devastation is indeed a sad incident. Forgetting all the enmity, both sides are coming forward to help each other. This is the real bondage which the two countries have and it came at the right moment. The entire world is amazed by the kind of help pouring in to help each other. Naturally it makes us to think that Indo- Pak may be history now.
Disasters also create bad diplomatic memories. Sometimes natural disaster affected countries are suspicious of the donor countries. For instance, India refused international aid for the tsunami affected areas precisely because of this. It was told that the Andaman & Nicobar Islands which is very sensitive security zone cannot be opened up for external forces landing. In the name of relief measures, India doubted there will be some loss of strategic security secrets. Sri Lanka refused rescue help from Israel because of the inclusion of 60 army soldiers in the 150 member mission. Indonesian government sent militants to Aceh for relief work. Actually the militants were sent to kill Acehnese rebels. Even movement of journalists was restricted in the name of protection from rebel attacks. Actually the Indonesian government was trying to control information about its negative relief work there.
In Sri Lanka, the two warring sides – government and LTTE are still struggling to decide who will operate the funds in northern and eastern parts of the country. This dispute has delayed the relief work in a major way. Due to this internal tension, external donors are not happy with the situation. It may really hamper the donor interest to rebuild the devastated island nation.
Disasters not only bring inter-national activities into limelight but also intra-national goodwill. When Mumbai was flooded by the torrential rains in July, archenemy of the Congress, Narendra Modi offered all assistance. Cutting across party lines, different states sent huge chunk of relief materials to Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry during the tsunami crisis.
The appointment of Bill Cilnton and Senior Bush as the special envoys of United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan to oversee the relief operations of tsunami affected area have added momentum to the disaster diplomacy. How far disaster affected people is going to benefit from the current compassionate diplomacy needs to be watched out.
