Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said the government has disbanded a Taiwanese rescue team that was on standby to possibly travel to Myanmar after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Southeast Asian country on Friday afternoon.
The ministry made the decision after considering the continued military conflict between Myanmar’s junta regime and local rebel groups over the past few days despite the strong earthquake, Liu said.
“We cannot guarantee the safety of our rescue team members once they are sent there,” Liu said on the sideline of a legislative session.
Photo courtesy of the National Fire Agency
As a result, the ministry decided to take team members off standby and allow them to return to their regular operations in Taiwan, she added.
International media reports said Myanmar’s military junta has continued to bomb parts of the war-torn country following the major earthquake which has so far reportedly killed more than 1,700 people.
The UN has described the attacks as “completely outrageous and unacceptable.”
Liu made the remarks in response to media queries about the ministry’s decision to disband the rescue team, which had been on standby since late on Friday.
After earthquake was reported, the ministry’s National Fire Agency established an ad hoc rescue team of 126 people, made up of rescuers from fire departments in Pingtung County and Taoyuan.
The team also had six doctors, seven nurses, two veterinarians, six search-and-rescue dogs, two structural engineers and 15 tonnes of equipment, the agency said in a statement.
The agency late on Sunday issued another news release saying it had learned that 13 international rescue teams have been deployed to help with post disaster rescue and relief work in Myanmar.
The number of rescuers is sufficient to meet the rescue needs there, so the Taiwanese rescue team is no longer needed for the time being, it said.
President William Lai (賴清德) and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) expressed concern over the natural disaster, and pledged that Taiwan’s rescue team would be ready to respond if asked to assist.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it reached out to the governments of Myanmar and Thailand, but so far the two countries have yet to say they need help from Taiwan.
In related news, several Burmese in Taiwan said they do not understand why their government would not accept assistance from Taiwanese rescue teams known for their post-earthquake rescue expertise.
One of them, an unnamed graduate student studying at National Chi Nan University in Nantou County, said Myanmar is desperately in need of all the help it can get.
Some of her friends in Myanmar told her that due to the lack of rescuers, many people have died trapped in collapsed buildings.
Two Burmese students, identified only as 20-year-old “Vina” and 25-year-old “BB,” said Myanmar’s junta has close relations with the Chinese government.
Therefore, it is very unlikely it would accept Taiwanese rescuers offer of assistance, they said.
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