Erdbeben erschüttert Südostiran

[Merowig]

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Why did so many have to die in Bam?

David Aaronovitch
Tuesday December 30, 2003
The Guardian

The Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday managed to get to Bam, three days after the earthquake which may have killed 30,000 of his fellow Iranians. The president, Mohammad Khatami, followed soon afterwards. Khamenei had words of dubious comfort for survivors when he told them that "we will rebuild Bam stronger than before". Given the collapse of 80% of the buildings, from the old fortress to the new hospitals, the Iranian government could hardly make the new Bam as weak as the old one.
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So why, despite the loss of 40,000 lives in the Gilan earthquake of 1990, had nothing been done? The same question was being asked back in the queue outside the clinic. Fariba Hemati told the Guardian what she thought of official efforts, "Our government is only preoccupied with slogans: 'Death to America', 'Death to Israel', 'Death to this and that'. We have had three major earthquakes in the past three decades. Thousands of people have died but nothing has been done. Why?"
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We should have been ready for this, say Iranians

Tehran fears for future as blood centres fail to cope with donors
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A nurse at the Vessal centre, who did not want to be identified, complained: "We are never prepared. Everytime a natural disaster happens we have to go through this. It breaks my heart to see people waiting to donate blood while we cannot help them."
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Now wait for the political tremors

Dec 31st 2003
From The Economist print edition

The political after-effects of a terrible earthquake are already being felt

DISASTER could hardly have struck at a worse time or taken a less anticipated form. Before dawn on December 26th, a Friday, the Muslim day of rest, the sleeping town of Bam was all but razed by an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale. More than one-third of the town’s 80,000 inhabitants were killed, either immediately, or later in the rubble of their homes. The authorities were ill-prepared. It was Bam’s first big quake in a millennium.
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