Taiwan lawmakers urge China to accept Taiwan search/rescue teams

May 14, 2008, 8:41 GMT

Taipei - Several Taiwan lawmakers on Wednesday urged China to accept Taipei's search and rescue teams, saying China should not reject overseas aid workers for political reasons.

'The most important thing now is to rescue survivors. We hope China can put aside political considerations and accept Taiwan's search and rescue teams,' Pan Meng-an, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said.

'In natural disaster relief work, there should be no consideration of nations or national boundary. We hope China will not become the second Myanmar,' he said, referring to Myanmar's blocking entry of foreign aid workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis which hit Myanmar on May 3, killing at least 32,000 people.

Chen Ying, another DPP lawmaker, chided China for blocking international aid after Taiwan's 1999 earthquake and said it is now barring foreign search and rescue teams from entering China.

'After Taiwan was hit by the earthquake in 1999, China said that foreign countries must apply to China to send aid to Taiwan. Now China, again for political reasons, is blocking foreign aid to China's quake victims,' she said.

On September 21, 1999, an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit central Taiwan, killing 2,400 people.

After China's Sichuan Province was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale on Monday, Taiwan offered to send relief material and search and rescue teams to China.

The Taiwan government, Red Cross and civic groups and enterprises are raising money for the quake victims.

China agreed to accept Taiwan's aid and allow two Taiwan Buddhist groups to send volunteers to Sichuan, but has refused to accept Taiwan's search and rescued teams, which are standing ready to fly to China.

China said the roads to the quake region are blocked by fallen stones, making it difficult for search and rescue teams to reach the quake areas, but many Taiwanese think China's refusal is for political reasons because China is still hostile towards Taiwan and suspects Taiwan's sincerity.

However, China has granted Taiwan's request to launch humanitarian charter flights to rush relief material to Sichuan. Taiwan has banned direct air links with China since 1949, when the Chinese Civil War split Taiwan and China.

The first humanitarian charter flight will depart from Taipei Thursday, when a China Airlines Boeing 747-400 cargo jet will fly 46 tons of aid to Sichuan, which was hit by a magnitude 7.8 quake Monday, killing at least 12,000 people and destroying half a million houses.