Would You PLEASE Tell Me Where To Go?

The aftermath of the Pakistan/Kashmir quake continues. According to this report in the Daily Times, survivors were 'baton-charged' by police essentially because the camp in which they were staying has inadequate sanitation facilities. They were told to leave, and they had the nerve to protest.

[snip]...A number of the demonstrators were arrested as they marched through the centre of the regional capital Muzaffarabad, said Shahid Hassan, Azad Kashmir police chief.

"They were ordered to leave the temporary camp because it was set up in the middle of the city and it did not have any proper sanitation or waste disposal facilities," Hassan said.

Pakistan’s President Musharraf visited the camp at Jalalabad Park, close to the banks of the River Neelum, one week ago when he came to Muzaffarabad for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

The protest comes as aid officials struggle to contain an outbreak of acute diarrhoea at Muzaffarabad’s main tent camp — in the sports ground of the city’s university — and a number of other spontaneous settlements. “We were shifting them to a proper camp with better living conditions but they did not agree,” police chief Hassan added. "Around 250 people protested, and police, in order to disperse them, used a mild baton charge. They arrested a few people and dispersed the rest of the crowd," he added.

They were stopped because they were heading towards a "sensitive area" where a US military hospital for quake victims was located, said Tahir Qureshi, the deputy police chief...[/snip]

(more at link)

Now, don't get me wrong. I think that the police were entirely justified in trying to stop outbreaks of disease from occurring, and that something needed to be done. However, if you read on, you'll find that all is not well.

Quick digression.

I'll bet those in the "sensitive area" have adequate sanitation facilities. Why put the reason for stopping the protestors near the end of the article? One can only guess. Propaganda is a good bet. Maybe theirs, maybe ours.

From another source, Reuters AlertNet, we find this:

[snip]..."We go in the open air," 12-year-old Rafit giggled, obviously embarrassed by the question, as his cousin Umcad, laughed out loud. "We don't use the toilets over there - it's too far," he complained, referring to the basic amenities on offer at the Dawa tented camp in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and home to over 1,000 quake victims.

In fact, both boys concede going outside was simply an easier option. "It's a problem for ladies, but not for us," they bragged.

But for aid workers, health officials and UN agencies on the ground, the problem is huge.

"We need to build about 200,000 toilets," Andrew MacLeod, head of the UN Emergency Coordination Centre, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"We have to aim for something like that - but that goal is a long way off," Larry Robertson, project officer and chief of water and environmental sanitation for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said in Muzaffarabad.

Whatever the exact figure, it's clear the challenge in building these latrines is daunting. With an estimated 4 million people defecating in the open and 1,500 mt of faeces being produced every day, communities were at high risk of an outbreak of communicable disease, UNICEF has warned...[/snip]

(again, more at link)

I have no idea at what level, if any, this tragedy in the making - after the initial quake tragedy - is being aired in the mainstream US press. My suspicion is, not nearly enough. My newswatchers me abreast of what the US MSM deems important for us to be thinking about, and they have yet to mention this to me. I've given up completely on television news.