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ISLAMABAD, Oct 19 (AFP): The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Wednesday that 10,000 more children could die from hunger, cold and disease in coming weeks because aid has still not reached parts of quake-hit Pakistan.
UNICEF called for immediate steps to push through more supplies, saying that children would be the first victims in a possible "second wave of deaths" as winter approaches.
Up to 120,000 children remain unreached in mountain areas devastated by the October 8 quake, "of whom the agency estimated some 10,000 could die of hunger, hypothermia and disease within the next few weeks," it said in a statement.
"The relief effort is becoming more complex with each passing day," the statement quoted UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman as saying at the agency's global warehouse in Copenhagen.
She said outbreaks of diarrhea had already been reported in stricken areas and there was a "significant threat of disease".
Pakistan says the quake killed at least 41,000 people and left 3.3 million homeless. Thousands of the dead were children, many of whom were crushed when their schools collapsed.
UNICEF called for more helicopters to help reach survivors in isolated mountain areas, where access was difficult even before the quake which destroyed most roads and paths.
"There are still too few helicopters to reach more than 1,000 remote villages with life-saving supplies that children urgently need," Veneman said, adding that the agency also lacked humanitarian partners to make deliveries.
"Given the intermittent shut-downs of the air corridor because of bad weather, the consequences for sick and injured children could be grave," she said.
The UNICEF chief added that temperatures were dropping and roads to stricken areas have become clogged with mud and people fleeing the mountains with their injured.
Even if children receive the tents and blankets they desperately need, they remain seriously threatened by a lack of medical assistance, dehydration due to bad water, and malnutrition, Veneman said.
The World Food Programme said Tuesday that half a million survivors of Pakistan's earthquake are in "desperate need" of shelter, blankets, medical care and food, and that time is running out to save them.
James Morris, executive director of the United Nations agency, said that reaching the isolated victims of the October 8 earthquake in the Himalayas was one of the toughest aid missions ever.
Meanwhile: Kashmir's earthquake has brought unprecedented momentum to open up its disputed border after six decades, but it remains far from certain if India and Pakistan can agree to the practicalities.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, visiting the ravaged Himalayan territory Tuesday, said he was ready to throw open the Line of Control, the ceasefire line that has divided Kashmiri families since 1949.
The proposal would boost the increasingly desperate relief efforts. But it is also a shrewd move by Musharraf, who has been pushing India for a soft border in the territory torn by a pro-Pakistan rebellion, analysts said.
India welcomed the offer but said it was waiting for the details. India made its own peace gesture, allowing people in the two-thirds of Kashmir it controls to telephone across the Line of Control for two weeks.
Observers were cautious on whether the disaster, which claimed more than 42,000 lives in the two countries, could lead to progress on Kashmir, the cause of two wars and decades of skirmishes between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
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