Survivors of a village devastated by Typhoon Morakot yesterday urged legislators to consider their long-term future when formulating a new reconstruction bill.
Villagers from Siaolin (小林) in Kaohsiung County’s Jiasian Township (甲仙) held a press conference at the Legislative Yuan to express their concerns as legislators worked to finalize the bill.
The survivors asked the government to give them farmland near their relocation site so that they can continue their way of life, and to investigate the cause of a landslide.
“Before Morakot, Siaolin had about 200 households and 500 or so people, but on Aug. 9, the landslide took the lives of more than 400 of our families, relatives and neighbors. I still cannot believe it happened,” said Siaolin Self-help Association spokesperson, Huang Chin-pao (黃金寶).
Before the disaster, most of the survivors were bamboo, taro, ginger or leaf vegetable farmers, Huang said.
“What we ask is simple: we want a safe place for relocation, and we want farmland so we can return to our previous lives,” he said.
“Though we have been receiving public donations and compensation and housing from the government, if the government doesn’t give us land, we don’t know how we will make a living in the future,” survivor Weng Jui-chi (翁瑞琪) said.
Huang also said the soil, rocks and wood that now cover their former village — valued at more than NT$100 million (US$3 million) — should become government property instead of going to business groups.
“The money should be used to fund reconstruction plans,” he said.
Huang said his people wanted to find out who was responsible for the devastation of their village.
“We asked the county government for help right before the landslide but no one paid attention to us … We also had to wait in the rubble for 36 hours before the first helicopter arrived … The judicial system should investigate this and tell us who was responsible,” he said.
In related news, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it has set aside a total of 15 facilities with capacity for 7,000 people to host flood victims.
MND Spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) told a press conference yesterday that the facilities are ready and can be used at anytime.
“These places may not be luxurious, but they can offer shelter to those who lost their homes during the floods,” Yu said.
Yu denied reports that soldiers were asked to read out Minister Chen Chao-min’s (陳肇敏) letter of encouragement every day before they began their rescue work.
“I think there has been some sort of misunderstanding. We requested group leaders to forward the minister’s note of encouragement to soldiers helping with the rescue work. We did not ask soldiers to read them out loud,” Yu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS