By DPA,
Taipei : Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Hsia has resigned for rejecting foreign aid after taiwan was hit by Typhoon Morakot, which left nearly 600 people dead, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Hsia tendered his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the foreign ministry’s instruction to Taiwan’s embassies and representatives offices to reject foreign countries’ aid, the United Daily News said.
The rejection caused a delay in rescue efforts, resulting in higher casualties.
By Monday, the official casualty list was 126 dead, 60 missing and 45 injured.
But the death toll is expected to rise further because in Hsiaolin village in Kaohsiung County of south Taiwan, 433 villagers remain missing and are believed to have been buried Aug 8 under 10 metres of mud, when Morakot slammed into Taiwan.
The News said that cabinet officials are pressuring Defence Minister Chen Chao-min to resign over the military’s delayed response to the disaster.
There are have been calls for President Ma Ying-jeou to assume responsibility or even resign.
Ma has apologised for the government’s slow response to evacuate trapped mountain villagers but blamed bad weather for the delay in the military’s rescue efforts.
A telephone poll of 1,176 adults by the Apple Daily showed that 53 percent of respondents thought Ma was responsible for the slow response, compared to 36 percent who did not hold Ma responsible.