A Gift of Goats is a Gift of Hope

Story and Photos by Darcy Kiefel, Heifer International Photojournalist

In a mud home made vibrant by beautiful flowers, Leokodia Byabasaija extended her hand to welcome a stranger.

Byabasaija, a beautiful woman who conceals the hardships of her life with an engaging smile, lives in the village of Kisinga, Uganda. Not long ago she had a happy life with her husband, Lesio, and their children. Married in 1968, the couple, working as peasant farmers, raised nine children. Although they struggled, together they managed to send their children to school and put food on the table.

In November 2001, after 33 years of marriage, Lesio died, leaving Leokodia a widow with children to rear with nothing more than a small vegetable garden for their survival.

But Oct. 30, 2002, brought a new future to Leokodia Byabasaija, her children and many other families in other Ugandan villages. On that day, Heifer International and the Kisinga Women’s Dairy Goat Project celebrated the arrival of 50 dairy goats donated by Oprah Winfrey, the world-famous American talk show host.

Heifer has been giving goats to this village since 1991, and continues to train women and families in goat husbandry and management, health, leadership and the integration of women into society. Soil erosion is a major problem in this area, and Heifer also trains farmers in ways to protect the environment.

Courses are held for both new and previous project farmers as the need arises, and an additional 100 families are educated each year before receiving the pass-on gift of animals.

Masereka Sileo and his wife, Spiranza Sileo, received their Heifer International goat in November 1994.

“After our Heifer goat had kids, we passed on the gift of an offspring with happiness to our neighbor and kept the other for project sustainability,” Spiranza Sileo said. “Over the years our Heifer International goat has had nine pregnancies. The total sale of goats has amounted to 800,000 Uganda shillings [about $450].

“Our original goat provided our family with three liters of milk daily, half of which we consumed and one liter we offered to our sickly neighbors,” she said. “Their children were malnourished and in great need of milk.”

“Before Heifer International we were low-income peasant farmers,” Masereka Sileo added. “Our way of life was not the best compared with how we live today. We survived in a grass hut with seven children. It would leak every time it rained and our health suffered. We couldn’t even afford to buy a cup of milk for our children. When the message came that animals would arrive to help our village, we welcomed the idea. We were trained in cultivation, construction of a pen for the animals, health, environmental protection and gender issues,” he said. “The Heifer International training took a great deal of time, and we almost lost hope. But because the training was so strong we remained patient. In 1994, our dreams came true and positive changes have continued to occur since then.”

Mrs. Sileo added, “From the breeding, selling and milk of our goats we built the home we are now sitting in. All our children attend school, our son has almost completed high school, and one of our daughters is enrolled in nursing school. “Our orphaned granddaughter whose mother passed away when she was young has been drinking goat’s milk since that time. She has never been sickly. I am not ashamed to say I am the woman I am today because of Heifer International.

Back at home, Leokodia Byabasaija was feeling blessed.

Beaming, she led her dairy goat to its newly constructed corral while her children watched with pride.

Leokodia’s daughter, Leonida, spoke of her family’s new hope. “I have seen the lives of our neighbors change because of their Heifer International animal,” she said. “I believe and pray that, God willing, this animal will bring our family a better life. Perhaps with the gift of our goat, my sisters and I will one day continue our studies,” she added. “Heifer International's hope that our children will have a future is our dream—and possibly our reality as well.”

Williams Case a Question of Mercy

With legal claims rejected, the killer's redemption may be key in clemency decision.

By Jenifer Warren and Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writers

SACRAMENTO — If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spares Stanley Tookie Williams from his scheduled execution at San Quentin State Prison next week, he will almost certainly be forced to anchor his decision in a rationale that has virtually disappeared from the modern clemency process: mercy.

Nationwide over the last 30 years, governors commuting death sentences have almost never cited a condemned man's redemption as a reason to save his life. Rather, they typically act because of doubts about guilt, questions surrounding trial fairness, concerns about mental illness or worries that capital punishment disproportionately targets racial minorities.

In the Williams case, legal claims have been rejected repeatedly by courts. His bid for clemency is rooted entirely in what attorneys describe as his metamorphosis behind bars, from the co-founder of the murderous Crips street gang to a peacemaker who writes children's books and preaches nonviolence.

Whether that transformation persuades Schwarzenegger to cancel Williams' death by lethal injection remains to be seen. The governor has not revealed details of his thinking on Williams, and aides would only say that he has been in daily contact with his legal team leading up to today's closed clemency hearing in the Capitol.

Although the Republican governor supports the death penalty, an advisor has said that Schwarzenegger would be open to clemency in the right case. And Schwarzenegger's views on crime and punishment are more nuanced than those of his two predecessors — who presided over 10 executions between them — and he has said the decision in the Williams case is one that he dreads.

In deciding the fate of two other condemned men, the governor rejected clemency, finding no evidence compelling him to act. In January, after he denied clemency for triple murderer Donald Beardslee and allowed the execution to proceed, Schwarzenegger told journalists in his native Austria that the episode marked "the hardest day" of his life.

The law, meanwhile, offers little guidance. There are no rules when it comes to executive commutations, and previous governors characterize clemency decisions as among the most challenging and emotional they faced in office. The public clamor only exacerbates the pressure.

"Clemency is an awesome responsibility," said former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat who rejected bids from five men who were executed. While Schwarzenegger will clearly be "aware that the world is watching," Davis said, the task is "a very solitary decision, a matter between the governor and his conscience."

Former Gov. Pete Wilson agreed that "you don't take lightly denying life to anyone." On the other hand, he said, Californians have "expressed their approval at the ballot box of imposing the death penalty, and so I think anyone seeking clemency has a very difficult standard to meet."

On Wednesday, lawyers for Williams summarized the line of argument they would be making at today's hearing, which the governor will attend, and said they would be presenting Schwarzenegger with a letter from Williams. They declined to reveal its contents.

Beginning at 10 a.m. today, the governor will hear the presentation from Williams' attorneys and one from the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Schwarzenegger's aides said he would make no comment, and they could not predict when he might make his decision.

Public support for Williams' clemency, meanwhile, has been intense among some Hollywood celebrities, world famous clergymen and teachers who use his books. Williams' lawyers say tens of thousands of people have written letters and e-mails, urging that their client be allowed to live. And during the past week, supporters have bought full-page advertisements in newspapers, including The Times, to push for clemency.

Williams' allies highlight his portfolio of accomplishment while incarcerated, which includes nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and ongoing efforts to discourage youths from joining gangs. Allowing Williams to live out his life in prison, they say, will preserve him as a force for good in society while validating the possibility of redemption in today's criminal justice system.

"Tookie Williams is the ideal candidate for clemency because his time on death row has dramatically reinforced the notion that each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done," said Bryan Stevenson, an acclaimed death penalty appellate lawyer and professor at New York University Law School.

Prosecutors and survivors of Williams' victims say his good works should not carry the day. They say Williams remains a man who took four lives and helped launch a gang war that has ravaged American cities.

Williams' pursuit of forgiveness rings hollow, they add, because he has neither apologized to his victims nor agreed to participate in a debriefing with law enforcement officials, a process in which gang dropouts share what they know.

"He seeks redemption, but he won't even take responsibility for murders committed by his own hand, to say nothing of the thousands to die in gang wars he helped encourage," said Joshua Marquis, district attorney for Clatsop County in Oregon and a nationally prominent supporter of the death penalty.

Williams has said he will not apologize for crimes he denies committing, and that to debrief officials would make him a snitch.

Schwarzenegger comes to the clemency decision after a year of sharp political disappointment. Polls show his popularity sagging, and the November special election he called ended in failure for the governor.

Analysts say commuting a convicted murderer's sentence now could be politically perilous; Schwarzenegger would be the first California governor to do so since Ronald Reagan spared the life of a brain-damaged killer, Calvin Thomas, in 1967. Though support for the death penalty has waned, about two-thirds of Californians continue to endorse it, polls show.

Stop CIA Kidnapping and Abuse

Stop CIA Kidnapping and Abuse

The ACLU, in an historic lawsuit, is challenging the extraordinary rendition of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent victim who was released from a CIA prison without ever being charged.

Former CIA Director George Tenet violated U.S. and international human rights laws when he authorized agents to abduct Mr. El-Masri, beat him, drug him, and transport him to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. The corporations that owned and operated the airplanes used to transport Mr. El-Masri are also being sued for his kidnapping and abuse. The CIA continued to hold Mr. El-Masri incommunicado in the notorious “Salt Pit” torture cell in Afghanistan long after his innocence was known. Five months after his abduction, Mr. El-Masri was deposited at night, without explanation, on a hill in Albania.

In response to the governments’ torture and abuse policies, Senator John McCain, who heroically survived torture and abuse while he was himself a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, introduced legislation that bolsters the prohibition on the government’s use of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. The Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, and an array of retired generals and admirals--including former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and John Shalikashvili, support this legislation.

Click here to take action now and support the McCain amendment!

The McCain amendment is a major step to making sure that the government understands that same clear rules apply to everyone, and would prohibit the torture and abuse suffered by Mr. El-Masri and other victims of extraordinary rendition. No one is above the law, and no one--no matter their office or rank--can order anyone else to break the rules.

Vice President Dick Cheney is personally lobbying Congress to exempt the CIA from the McCain amendment, so that the agency can continue to torture and abuse people in its secret prisons.

Take action right now and urge Congress to vote for the anti-torture amendment sponsored by Senator John McCain.
The Patriot Act passed a mere 45 days after the September 11 attacks with virtually no debate or discussion. Fortunately many of the sections that expanded government power were set to expire at the end of this year. Now, some in Congress are secretly considering legislation that would make these powers permanent and expand them.

Insult to Injury

President Bush is Lying to Public About Torture Practices
By Anthony D. Romero

President Bush is lying to the American people.

Those are words that I have never uttered before in public. To make such a serious allegation against my country's leader is not something I do lightly.

Consider the President's words in Panama: "We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture."

As the President well knows, the sad fact for all Americans is that many of the interrogations we have conducted are not within the law. As many current and former government and military officials recently told PBS' Frontline, we have tortured - and even killed - prisoners in our custody.

Government documents obtained through our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit describe hundreds of incidents of torture and abuse in excruciating detail. It is clear that these are not the actions of a few rogue soldiers. The mere existence of thousands of government documents on torture underscores the systemic nature of the problem. There are also videos and photos showing torture and abuse that government lawyers are fighting like mad to suppress.

If the President really wished to solve the torture scandal that has marred America's standing at home and abroad, he would own up to what has happened. He would ask the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute the torture and abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. He would not threaten to veto the legislation proposed by Senate Republicans led by Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, which would ensure that no one is above the law, and no one - regardless of their office or rank - can order anyone else to break the rules and abuse detainees.

Holding high-level government officials accountable for torture and abuse is the only way to ensure that we will not repeat these mistakes. And upholding the rules of war will help ensure that no member of the U.S. military is subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment when they are captured by the enemy.

But our President's lies merely add insult to the very real injury that has already occurred.

Five questions non-Muslims would like answered

By Dennis Prager, Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his website: www.dennisprager.com.

THE RIOTING IN France by primarily Muslim youths and the hotel bombings in Jordan are the latest events to prompt sincere questions that law-abiding Muslims need to answer for Islam's sake, as well as for the sake of worried non-Muslims.

Here are five of them:

(1) Why are you so quiet?

Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.

There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude? When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror?

(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?

If Israeli occupation is the reason for Muslim terror in Israel, why do no Christian Palestinians engage in terror? They are just as nationalistic and just as occupied as Muslim Palestinians.

(3) Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?

According to Freedom House, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy, of the world's 47 Muslim countries, only Mali is free. Sixty percent are not free, and 38% are partly free. Muslim-majority states account for a majority of the world's "not free" states. And of the 10 "worst of the worst," seven are Islamic states. Why is this?

(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?

Young girls in Indonesia were recently beheaded by Muslim murderers. Last year, Muslims — in the name of Islam — murdered hundreds of schoolchildren in Russia. While reciting Muslim prayers, Islamic terrorists take foreigners working to make Iraq free and slaughter them. Muslim daughters are murdered by their own families in the thousands in "honor killings." And the Muslim government in Iran has publicly called for the extermination of Israel.

(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

No church or synagogue is allowed in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban destroyed some of the greatest sculptures of the ancient world because they were Buddhist. Sudan's Islamic regime has murdered great numbers of Christians.

Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were Christian-based terror groups around the world.

As a member of the media for nearly 25 years, I have a long record of reaching out to Muslims. Muslim leaders have invited me to speak at major mosques. In addition, I have studied Arabic and Islam, have visited most Arab and many other Muslim countries and conducted interfaith dialogues with Muslims in the United Arab Emirates as well as in the U.S. Politically, I have supported creation of a Palestinian state and supported (mistakenly, I now believe) the Oslo accords.

Hundreds of millions of non-Muslims want honest answers to these questions, even if the only answer you offer is, "Yes, we have real problems in Islam." Such an acknowledgment is infinitely better — for you and for the world — than dismissing us as anti-Muslim.

We await your response.

CIA Operates Secret Prison Network

U.S. Government Has Detained Terror Suspects Covertly Since 9/11

Nov. 2, 2005 — The CIA has operated a secret prison system where more than 100 terror suspects have been locked up since Sept. 11.

The so-called "black sites" — which were so covert that only a handful of government officials even knew about them until today — operated over the past four years in eight different countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several Eastern European states, according to a story first reported today in the Washington Post.

Former officials say that of the 100 suspected terrorists sent into this secret prison system, 30 are considered major al Qaeda operatives.

Sources say some of the prisoners include Abu Zabaida, who was the head of Osama bin Laden's operations network, and Ramzi Binalshibh, a key planner in the 9/11 attacks. Both men were captured in Pakistan and taken to a black site in Thailand, then later moved to another location.

What Happens in Secret Prisons?

What troubles many in the international community is the lack of oversight of interrogation techniques used at these secret lockups.

A recent Amnesty International report tells of two Yemeni prisoners held in a secret U.S. detention facility who say they were kept in an underground cell with Western music piped in 24 hours a day for well over a year, and interrogated daily by U.S. guards who were fully covered "like ninjas."

"The one overriding reason for such a facility is to torture those in detention," said Mark Garlasco of Human Rights Watch. "So that they are away from any prying eyes from the public and from the media."

The White House today denied that the CIA engages in torture.

"While we have to do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorist attacks, the president has been very clear that we're going to do that in a way that is consistent with our values," said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

The CIA had no comment today, but the Post's report comes amid intense debate over the treatment of detainees and the legal and ethical issues involved in holding terror suspects without charges. There is debate over the issue within the CIA itself. A former intelligence official said one reason this story was likely leaked to the press is because some CIA officers don't believe the program is sustainable and could harm the United States' reputation.

Positive Thinking the Key to a Longer Life?

Convent Archives Provide Striking Link Between Outlook and Life Expectancy

By NED POTTER

Oct. 25, 2005 — - A growing mountain of evidence suggests that an upbeat, positive attitude could be the key to a long life. Some of the best scientific proof comes from the world of religion.

At the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary in New York, there can be an 80-year divide between the sisters who teach and the children in their classes. The age difference hardly matters. Many of the nuns are aging remarkably well, and doctors wonder if it's a matter of personality.

"I realize it is not how long you live but how intensely you live, in terms of appreciating your life and living life to the fullest," said Sr. Loretta Theresa Richards.

Richards is 76, and doctors say her sense of purpose may be helping to keep her healthy. Studies show people who are busy, optimistic, and have networks of friends tend to live longer. Involvement is good, not tiring.

"It does not wear you out," said Dr. David Bennett, director of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging in Chicago. "It seems to keep everything working."

Mind Body Connection

But why? How does the mind affect the body? Several studies have focused on nuns and monks because they have consistent lifestyles -- and are happy to help scientists in the cause of knowledge.

"I wake up in the morning and there is one prayer I say every day, and it carries me for the day," said Sr. Anthony Marie Granger, age 83.

Psychologists say there is an obvious need for negative emotions, such as fear, which tell us to run from danger.

But over the years, the stress hormones that result are bad for the heart and immune system. So it may be that positive emotions -- like optimism and serenity -- help your body recover from that stress.

Research has shown that people who meditate -- whether in prayer or under a doctor's guidance -- can lower their blood pressure.

"You can bring about biochemical, molecular, physiological changes in the body that are effective in treating stress conditions," said Dr. Herbert Benson, founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Benson is the author of several bestselling books on what he calls "the relaxation response," a technique he says people can use daily to control stress.

Additional studies suggest that upbeat, stress-reducing traits appear at an early age. Some of the most striking findings have come, not from examining nuns in their later years, but from essays they wrote when they entered the convent in their 20s.

Those who were optimistic and had active minds back then, were the ones who aged best. On average, they lived 10 years longer than others.

The essays offer tantalizing clues, but researchers caution that, until recently, few people reached age 65. They died from infections, heart attacks and other causes, long before they had a chance to reach old age.

"You realize that this is really the first generation in the history of the world to get old," said Dr. Bennett. "We are really at the beginning of understanding aging."

U.N. appeals for quake refugees

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) -- The United Nations warned that 800,000 people remain without shelter more than two weeks after South Asia's colossal quake, and repeated its urgent appeal for more aid. As powerful aftershocks continued to rattle the region, a top U.S. commander said the United States would step up its relief efforts.

In an unusual convergence of appeals, al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, urged Muslims to send as much aid as they could to quake victims in Pakistan, despite President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the United States in its war on terrorism.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and India inched closer to a deal in which they would put aside their long-standing dispute over the Kashmir region for the sake of helping the quake victims, allowing them to cross the disputed border.

The need to speed up relief efforts took on greater resonance Sunday as a powerful aftershock -- one of hundreds since the October 8 temblor -- rocked Pakistani-held Kashmir, the region hardest hit by the initial quake. No one was killed in that aftershock, but an earlier tremor Sunday killed five people in Afghanistan's eastern Zabul province near the Pakistan border.

U.S. Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, after a tour of the quake zone Sunday said he "saw devastation everywhere" and that 11 more Chinook helicopters would join the existing 17 U.S. helicopters and the Army's only Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or MASH, in relief efforts.

"I think the most important thing we can do is, by our own example, show the rest of the world that there's a lot more work that needs to be done," he told reporters at the Pakistani air base in Rawalpindi, outside Islamabad.

"It's not something that can just be forgotten, it can't be the five-second sound bite that we're all so used to, it has to be a long-term effort to help a lot of people."

Abizaid was joined by an unusual bedfellow in calling for more aid.

"You should send as much aid as you can to the victims, regardless of Musharraf's relations with the Americans," Osama bin Laden's deputy, al-Zawahri, said in a recorded message broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV.

The 7.6-magnitude October 8 quake is believed to have killed at least 79,000 people, mostly in Pakistani Kashmir, and left more than 3 million homeless.

Rashid Kalikov, U.N. coordinator for humanitarian assistance in Muzaffarabad, said 800,000 of those people still had no shelter whatsoever, with winter looming.

"The lives of thousands are at risk and they urgently need our help," Kalikov said. "The scale of this calamity is beyond the capacity of any country."

India has provided tons of relief goods to its neighbor and traditional rival, but has been moving ahead cautiously with proposals from Pakistan that Kashmiris be allowed to cross between the two nation's zones in Kashmir -- a region claimed in its entirety by both.

Opening the border is particularly sensitive for New Delhi, which has fenced and fortified the so-called Line of Control to prevent infiltration by Islamic militants who fight Indian security forces, seeking Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan.

Instead, India has proposed opening three aid camps for Pakistani quake victims on its side but signaled Sunday that it could work with Islamabad's suggestions.

"It appears to us that the proposals made by Pakistan can be reconciled with those that we ourselves had already made," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in a statement in New Delhi.

Pakistan's top relief official, Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan, said Sunday the official quake toll is now more than 53,000 dead and 75,000 injured, though central figures have lagged behind regional ones. Figures from officials in the North West Frontier Province and Pakistan's part of Kashmir add up to about 78,000. India reported 1,360 deaths in its part of Kashmir.

Orphans in Pakistan

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) -- The United Nations warned that 800,000 people remain without shelter more than two weeks after South Asia's colossal quake, and repeated its urgent appeal for more aid. As powerful aftershocks continued to rattle the region, a top U.S. commander said the United States would step up its relief efforts.

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lets pray that the US really keep and generously excede its commitment to relief efforts... I realize that there are disasters happening here internally as well, still dealing with Katrina, Rita and now WIlma. But how can you see this photo album and not be moved? truth is, God sees his children, even if the rest of the world overlooks them.

Young Children Shot in China Schoolyard

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man shot and injured 16 young schoolchildren as they were doing their morning exercises, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, the latest in a wave of school attacks to shock the country in recent years.

The middle-aged man opened fire with several home-made guns at the children at the Niutoushan Primary School in impoverished eastern Anhui province on Wednesday morning, Xinhua said.

Seven of the 16 wounded were in serious condition in hospital in the neighboring province of Zhejiang.

One man working near the school tried to stop the shooting but was knocked down by the gunman as he made his escape, Xinhua said.

There have been a series of attacks on schools and schoolchildren around China, some by people who have lost their jobs or felt left out of the recent economic boom.

A carpenter broke into a school in southern China in April and cut off part of a boy's ear with a kitchen knife and half a girl's middle finger.

Two children and a teacher were killed last year in the Chinese capital Beijing in two separate kindergarten attacks.

A Chinese bus driver stabbed and wounded 25 primary school children in the eastern province of Shandong in September 2004. The same month, a man wielding a knife and homemade bombs injured 28 children in the eastern city of Suzhou.

Aid flows to Kashmir quake zone, but scene chaotic

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A steady flow of relief supplies rumbled into Pakistan's earthquake zone on Thursday but the scene remained chaotic as survivors and rescuers struggled to distribute the material.

President Pervez Musharraf called on the country on Wednesday night to unite in the face of tragedy and appealed to the estimated 3.3 million people affected by the quake to be patient, saying relief efforts were gathering pace.

But the message could not even reach most survivors in the northern mountains of the country, now in their sixth day without electricity or reliable supplies of food, water and shelter.

A five-person medical team wandering around Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir and the city worst hit by Saturday's 7.6 magnitude quake, said they had come from an unaffected part of the northern Pakistan territory to offer their services.

"We want to help but we don't know where to start. Where is the organization? Where should we go?" said Rehmat Ullah Wazir, a medical officer in his hospital's department of surgery.

He said he had met at least five other teams in a similar position, sent up to Kashmir with equipment and medicines but with no idea of where to go.

Businessman Achmed Rafiqi returned to Muzaffarabad from the commercial capital of Karachi on Wednesday night to find a pile of rubble where his home and electronics business had been.

"I fear that my whole family is under there," he said. "But how can I find them? How can I bury them? There is no one to help me, not even God."

REAL DEATH TOLL NOT KNOWN

The official death toll in northern Pakistan stood unchanged at 23,000 on Thursday, but that was expected to rise as relief workers slowly reach remote villages deep in mountainous valleys in the foothills of the Himalayas. Another 1,200 people are confirmed dead across the border in Indian Kashmir.

Some local officials and politicians in Pakistan say deaths could exceed 40,000 and local authorities and aid groups were very concerned about the areas not yet visited.