China will continue to perform its duties in international
humanitarian affairs, especially in overseas search and rescue work
after earthquakes, a senior official of the China Earthquake
Administration said yesterday.
"When natural disasters occurred in other countries, we will
actively take part in international rescue work as we did before,"
said Zhao Heping, deputy director of the administration, at a press
conference of the Asian-Pacific Regional Earthquake Exercise, which
ended yesterday in Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's Hebei Province.
China's main body for international earthquake rescue work, the
China International Search and Rescue (CISAR) Team, was established
in 2001.
Since 2003, the team has been to five international search and
rescue missions: The 2003 magnitude 6.7 Algeria earthquake and
magnitude 7.0 Iran Bam earthquake, the 2004 Indonesia tsunami
disaster, the 2005 magnitude 7.8 Pakistan earthquake and the 2006
magnitude 6.2 Indonesia Yogyakarta earthquake.
The CISAR team did a demonstration exercise yesterday to 17
foreign national search and rescue teams from the Asian-Pacific
region, Europe and America.
Arjun Katoch, chief of the Field Coordination Support Section of
the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Emergency
Services Branch, spoke highly of the CISAR team's performance.
"The work of the CISAR team was up to international standards,
no matter where they are working," he told China Daily.
Katoch said the CISAR team should also enhance its level of
professional training. Sources said a research and rescue
professional training center will be established in Beijing.
"I hope the training facilities could also serve professionals
from other countries," Katoch said.
Zhao said the equipment standard of the CISAR team should be
updated.
"The equipment, adopted when the CISAR team was established, was
up to international standards five years ago. But the equipment is
now somewhat out of fashion," he said.
The safety of CISAR team members in rescues overseas should be
better guaranteed, Zhao said.
The official said improvements will be made in these fields, and
the team's air-transportation ability, in coming years to make the
CISAR team more capable in international search and rescue
work.
(China Daily August 8, 2006)