Mr. Luis Ayala
Secretary General
Socialist International
London
27 April 2015
Dear Comrade,
Nepal experienced a devastating earthquake on Saturday, 25 April 2015 at 11.56
am. The epicenter of the earthquake (7.6 on the Richter scale) was
in Gorkha District
– northwest of Kathmandu Valley. This earthquake has had devastating impact on
human lives and property in Nepal. The human toll is predicted to be in the
thousands, it is yet early days to find out the exact number of lives lost (already the
count is more than 2,000 dead) due to inaccessibility of the hilly and mountainous
areas where villages after villages have been razed to the ground. The most
populous areas of the inner cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur have also
witnessed a great deal of loss of property and lives. A number of UNESCO World
Heritage sites have also been decimated. A second big earthquake (6.8 Richter) also
hit the eastern area bordering Kathmandu Valley on Sunday, 26 April at around 1
pm at Sindupalchowk District. The devastation caused by this second earthquake
may have wiped out a number of settlements in that area as well. The damage to
lives and property are of an apocalyptic proportion, especially for a nation, which is
still in transition after a decade-long conflict.
I would like to request your good offices to reach out to leaders and country
governments all throughout the socialist family to help Nepal in this hour of great
need. Besides immediate relief and rescue operations, we will also need support and
collaboration for rehabilitation of our nation and its people in the future.
Thank you for the support.
Sincerely,
Sher Bahadur Deuba
Chairman, SI Asia-Pacific Committee
Vice-President of the Socialist International