Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 23, 1990 TAG: 9006230277
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NICOSIA, CYPRUS LENGTH: Medium
Iran, at odds with the United States since the 1979 seizure of hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, appealed for international help. The government said it would welcome relief from the American Red Cross and other U.S. humanitarian groups even though it has no diplomatic ties with the United States.
The U.S. government Friday night prepared to airlift blankets, tents and other items that were donated through the American Red Cross.
The State Department said the goods, valued at $225,000, were to be flown from a U.S. base near Pisa, Italy. The charter cost was listed at $66,000.
"We want to be helpful without regard for our political differences with Iran," said deputy spokesman Richard Boucher.
There have been only rare instances of U.S.-Iranian cooperation since the two countries broke diplomatic relations a decade ago. The United States holds Iran partly responsible for the continued detention of American hostages by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
The magnitude of Thursday's pre-dawn disaster became more obvious as rescuers were able to get into the region about 125 miles northwest of Tehran near the Caspian Sea to view the destruction.
The Islamic Republic News Agency, monitored in Cyprus, said 6,000 people were pulled from rubble and flown from the stricken Gilan and Zanjan provinces to hospitals.
Iranian television showed scenes of devastation, including the remains of an entire row of hillside village houses that collapsed and slid down the hill.
Rescuers scooped up rubble and used police dogs to find victims. They gently fed water to one man who was trapped in a mass of stones and earth, only his head protruding.
The Iranian Red Crescent asked for help in sheltering 400,000 people left homeless.
Hossein Zeineddin, a second secretary with Iran's U.N. Mission in New York, late Friday said that according to the latest estimates from the region, at least 40,000 people were killed and 100,000 were injured.
The toll surpassed a quake that killed 25,000 people in nearby Soviet Armenia in December 1988, and a quake in Iran in 1978 that also killed 25,000.
It was the highest earthquake toll since July 28, 1976, when an estimated 200,000 people were killed in China by a quake measuring 7.8-8.2 on the Richter scale.
Farhad Shad, a spokesman for the Geophysics Center at Tehran University, told IRNA that 140 aftershocks were registered after the killer earthquake, which measured 7.3 to 7.7 on the Richter scale, according to geological stations in Tehran, Edinburgh, Scotland and Golden, Colo.
The People's Mujahedeen of Iran, an opposition group based in Baghdad, Iraq, said in a statement Friday that one of the aftershocks Thursday in Qazvin, 85 miles west of Tehran, killed 602 people.
More than 3,000 tons of relief supplies were delivered in 50 trips by air force transport planes, the Iranian news agency quoted an air force commander identified only as Gen. Naderian as saying. Earlier, poor visibility hampered rescue operations.
The United States sent a message of condolence and expressed willingness to provide humanitarian aid. Israel, which also has no relations with Iran, did the same.
In Stamford, Conn., the AmeriCares relief organization said it would send a medical team and 80,000 pounds of supplies to Iran today.
"We really can't be perceived as so bad if we reach out to the people there," said Terry Tarnowski of AmeriCares.
Pat Davis, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said the agency has donated $50,000 in cash and is accepting cash donations to buy blankets, medicines, clothes and flashlights.
She said checks payable to Iran Relief can be sent to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013. Checks also can be sent to local Red Cross chapters.
President Hashemi Rafsanjani flew to the village of Roodbar in the heart of the devastated region and told Iranian television that "this disaster is much worse than anything we have heard from the media.
"Realistic casualty figures would be a lot higher than those already announced," said Rafsanjani, who appealed for foreign help.
"Everyone is helping, but with a calamity this disastrous, nothing could be enough," said the president.
The state-run television interviewed one middle-aged man from Roodbar who said he had been sleeping when the temblor struck.
by CNB