Armenia Calls World ‘Far Too Generous’ : Will Return Some Supplies; 4,500 Women, Children Evacuated

Rescuers evacuated 4,500 women and children from earthquake-damaged Armenia on Monday while plans were made to return some of the relief supplies sent to the disaster areas from a “far too generous” world.

The latest evacuation came amid worsening weather and the growing threat of epidemic from the tens of thousands of corpses trapped in the rubble of the devastating magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck cities and villages in northwest Armenia Dec. 7.

Nearly 8,000 people were moved out of the stricken zone on Sunday, the Communist Party daily newspaper Pravda reported. Only adult male Armenians will remain to assist Soviet army troops and others engaged in the massive cleanup campaign.

In Geneva, officials of the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies grappled with the novel problem of a huge surplus of relief supplies and what they saw as a lack of coordination in the international effort to assist the stricken areas.

Two-thirds of 27,000 railroad cars that carried relief material to the region from other parts of the Soviet Union have yet to be unloaded, Per Stenbaeck, secretary general of the league, said after a two-day inspection trip to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

International donations should focus on money for rehabilitation, particularly workshops to manufacture artificial limbs, Stenbaeck said. About 4,000 people have lost limbs, he added.

Red Cross officials reiterated a call for donors to suspend aid shipments until further notice.

Andrei Kisselev, undersecretary-general of the league, said food and clothing are no longer needed.

Better Coordination Needed

“We shouldn’t send more supplies,” Stenbaeck said. “And when I hear that dog teams were sent on Saturday or Sunday, I must protest.”

Officials in Armenia, however, are evaluating whether winter tents and additional transportation are still needed, he said. There are about 53,000 tents in the area, according to Soviet figures quoted by the league.

Stenbaeck said he met with Soviet Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov and they agreed that better coordination between governments and private organizations is needed to ensure an efficient emergency program.

Ryzhkov also “realized there is a need for rather thorough changes in the disaster response system in the Soviet Union,” Stenbaeck said.

“Nobody has an overall view of what has been sent off,” Stenbaeck said of the global effort. “It took a week to find out what has been stored in warehouses.”

Due to a lack of international coordination, the donor response has been “far too generous,” Kisselev said. For example, reports suggest that up to 75 kidney dialysis machines were sent to the Soviet Union, while only 20 had been asked, he said.

Stenbaeck said “some of these oversubscriptions will be sent back” by the Soviets, which he termed “a very good sign of honesty.”

“I think there are more kidney dialysis machines per capita in Armenia than anywhere in the world,” Kisselev said. The machines were needed to cleanse victims’ blood of poisons released when part of the body is crushed.

The quake leveled the cities of Leninakan, Kirovakan and Spitak, as well as up to 100 Armenian villages, reducing the homes of more than 500,000 people to rubble.

Thousands have been living since then in tents or in the open air, and the onset of winter in the Caucasus Mountains of the southern Soviet Union has dealt survivors and rescue workers alike one more hardship.

More snow and freezing temperatures again were forecast for Armenia today.

Pravda said 4,500 mothers and children, along with their teachers, were being sent Monday to Anapa, a resort on the more temperate Crimean Peninsula, on the Black Sea.

Moscow Radio said that evacuation of children, women and the elderly is nearing completion.

Deputy Premier Yuri P. Batalin told a special Politburo commission overseeing relief efforts that so far, 70,094 people have been evacuated from the quake zone. Of that number, 33,053 are living in holiday resorts, the official Tass news agency said.

Pravda estimated that 40,000-45,000 people have been killed by the quake, at least 10,000 fewer than the provisional death toll of 55,000 given by Soviet officials.

Soviet statistics list 23,390 bodies as having been accounted for, meaning that thousands of decaying corpses still lie under the wreckage.

The bodies pose the threat of epidemic, and Radio Moscow said those still in the disaster area were given medicine “to make them more resistant to infectious diseases. Besides, a close eye is kept on the quality of fresh water, and only disposable dishes are being used.”