theSun | FRIDAY AUGUST 14 2009
news without borders
Pressure mounts on Taiwan govt
over rescues
LIUKUEI (Taiwan): Taiwan yesterday de-
ployed thousands of extra troops as it faced
growing public anger and pressure to rescue
people trapped by deadly landslides triggered
by Typhoon Morakot.
The military said 4,000 more soldiers were
added to the rescue effort, bringing the total to
38,000, as the death toll from the island’s worst
floods in half a century rose to 116 with fears it
may still increase dramatically.
Another 300 who had been reported missing
were feared dead after the village of Hsiaolin in
southern Taiwan was flattened by landslides.
“Some 300 people were missing and possibly
buried under mudslides in Hsiaolin village. The
situation is very pessimistic,” Kaohsiung county
magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing told AFP.
Yang said more than 2,000 villagers in the
south were believed to be trapped awaiting
evacuation by air. Rescuers were struggling
against mounting hazards as the floods created
at least four lakes in the area, two of which had
already overspilt.
Meanwhile, helicopters were scouring re-
mote areas in the centre and south of the island,
dropping food and medicine to cut-off villages
and evacuating people to safety, while rain
continued to fall.
More than 15,000 people have been rescued
since last weekend’s typhoon, which dumped
three metres of rain, but the government has
been accused by survivors and politicians of
doing too little, too late.
Dozens of mountain villages populated
mainly by indigenous aboriginal tribes have
 11
43 Philippine
soldiers, extremists
killed in clash
ZAMBOANGA: At least 23 soldiers and 20
members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group
were killed in fierce fighting in the southern
Philippines after a raid on a training camp
run by the Al Qaeda-linked organisation,
the military said yesterday.
Fourteen other soldiers were also
wounded after the military launched a
major offensive on the camp in the town
of Ungkaya Pukan on the remote island of
Basilan on Wednesday, officials said.
The facility was overrun, but reports
from the field said day-long clashes that
followed were fierce and led to the heavy
casualties, regional commander Maj-Gen
Benjamin Dolorfino said.
Numerous home-made bombs, ready
for detonation, were recovered along with
Red Cross 13 high-powered firearms, he said.
members The fighting was the heaviest since at
escort least 29 soldiers were killed in two sepa-
rescued rate clashes with the Abu Sayyaf in July
residents and August 2007 – with the bodies of 10
who were soldiers later being found mutilated.
trapped The military “launched a decisive law
to receive enforcement operation targeting the
medical care Abu Sayyaf’s main training camp in the
in Cishan. province”, army spokeswoman Lt Steffani
Cacho said.
EPAPIX “Recovered from the camp were
sizeable quantities of IEDs (improvised
been totally cut off for days after landslides “We are helpless. We are forgotten. We have explosive devices) rigged to explode while
destroyed roads and bridges, leaving them only been waiting for the helicopters without sup- others were ready for use,” she said.
accessible by air. plies,” one villager told AFP. Soldiers who airlifted their fallen col-
Tempers have flared as desperate relatives President Ma Ying-jeou was confronted by leagues to a military base in nearby Zam-
gathered at rescue centres – soldiers had to relatives complaining about his government’s boanga City said those who died were hit
push back people who tried to storm their way handling of the crisis when he travelled to the by sniper fire.
on to helicopters heading to the stricken zone. county of Yunlin to inspect relief efforts. Fighting has ceased, Dolorfino said, but
“32 DEAD, SOS,” read a sign painted in red Television footage showed dozens of people troops were still clearing the area to ensure
on a smashed bridge at the only entrance to surrounding Ma, with one man angrily asking: no insurgents remained. Troops were also
the village of Hsinfa, a hot spring resort where “What is the government doing? It’s too late, pursuing other Abu Sayyaf members, he
bodies were found buried by mudslides. they cannot be saved.” – AFP added. – AFP