Taiwan's president defends rescue efforts

By Robin Kwong in Taipei

Financial Times, August 15 2009

Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan's president, yesterday sought to counter mounting criticism of his government's handling of relief efforts as the death toll from Typhoon Morakot passed 500 people and rescue operations were stepped up.

The president, whose administration has been accused of responding sluggishly and chaotically to the disaster, convened the first national security council meeting since he took office in May 2008 to discuss further responses to Taiwan's worst natural disaster in the past decade.

"Typhoon Morakot has deeply wounded Taiwan," Mr Ma said.

He sent an extra 10,000 soldiers to help with relief efforts and attempted to improve co-ordination efforts by ordering the central emergency operation centre to be the sole agency giving out official information.

The death toll from the typhoon, which caused widespread flooding and landslides, had been revised to about 500, said Mr Ma. This was a sharp increase from Thursday's toll of 108 and was the first time official figures had taken into account the worst tragedy - some 380 people perished when a mudslide flattened Hsiao Lin village several days ago.

The economic loss from the typhoon was more than T$50bn (US$1.5bn, €1.1bn, £920m), Mr Ma said.

The government is also struggling to contain political damage from a diplomatic error. While on Thursday Mr Ma had publicly denied reports that his government had initially rejected help from other countries, a foreign ministry memo that proved otherwise was leaked to the local press yesterday.

The foreign ministry said the "poorly worded" memo was written and sent without the president's awareness. Liu Chao-shiuan, premier, called for an inquiry into this "serious mistake by the foreign ministry".

It has been nearly a week since Typhoon Morakot caught Taiwan off-guard and left thousands of villagers stranded in remote mountain villages where roads and bridges were washed away.

While some 32,000 people have been rescued, the government said about 2,000 still needed to be airlifted to safety.

Friends and relatives of people still missing have criticised progress as painfully slow.