The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) rebutted accusations yesterday that officials had not done enough to find eight Taiwanese businessmen missing off the coast of Madagascar since Friday.
Early on Friday morning, a boat carrying the businessmen sailed from Sainte-Marie Island off Madagascar’s eastern coast to survey fisheries in the area. The boat apparently got into trouble and sank.
“I got three phone calls from my brother around 5am [on Friday morning]. His voice wasn’t clear, so I could only barely hear him saying that something had happened to the boat, that water was pouring in,” said Liu Shang-wei (劉上瑋), brother of Liu Shou-chih (劉守智), who has run an aquaculture business in Madagascar for the past 11 years and was among the eight people on board.
“The signals were not clear ... all I heard were words like ‘boat,’ ‘water’ and ‘cabin leaking,’ with the sound of water and wind in the background, and before long, we lost contact,” Liu said.
The other seven, whose names were released by MOFA, are Chang Chin-sheng (張錦生), Chang Ming-sheng (張銘盛), Chang Fang-chieh (張芳杰), Chen Ching-wen (陳清文), Lu Chen-chuan (呂振銓), Lee Chih-jen (李智仁) and Lu Chien-ying (盧健穎) — all residents of Taipei County.
“Our representative office in South Africa — the nearest diplomatic mission to Madagascar in the absence of diplomatic relations — was notified of the accident at around 12am on Saturday morning and began efforts to rescue the eight,” Andrew Chang (張雲屏), director-general of the Department of African Affairs, told a news conference at the ministry yesterday.
“We contacted Madagascar’s foreign ministry and its fishing authorities, asking them to help with the rescue,” Andrew Chang said. “Meanwhile, since Liu Shou-chih’s wife, Han Jing [韓晶], is a Chinese national, she has also asked the Chinese embassy in Madagascar for help.”
News was received that the missing eight had been located on Saturday morning, but the report was later found to be false.
“At about 6am [on Saturday], Han told us that the eight businessmen had been found and were on their way back to Madagascar. But at about 4pm [on Saturday], she called us again saying that the information was wrong,” Andrew Chang said.
He said that two officials from Taiwan’s representative office in South African had flown to Madagascar at 4pm yesterday on the first available flight from South Africa after the office was notified of the incident.
While Andrew Chang and MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said repeatedly that the ministry was doing its best to help rescue the missing men, family members accused the government of reacting too slowly.
“Before MOFA began any concrete efforts, we [families of the eight] had already hired local rescue teams and helicopters to search for them,” Chang Hui-min (張慧敏), Chang Ming-sheng’s sister, told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“In addition to not taking action, they even gave us wrong information!” she said, referring to the news that the missing people had been located.
Meanwhile, Henry Chen said that the ministry was trying to get tickets for family members of the missing businessmen who want to go to Madagascar, “but it’s not that easy since it’s the summer peak period.”
However, Chang Ming-ju (張銘如), Chang Ming-sheng’s brother, told the Taipei Times that he had already secured a ticket.
“I’ve bought a ticket to South Africa through a travel agency in that country and am leaving tonight,” he said via telephone yesterday.
Separately, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday that ministry officials should take responsibility for the delay in launching a rescue for the missing men.
He said the officials had neglected their duties and the incident showed the slackness of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government.
Lai asked the government to concentrate on the lives of its own citizens rather than seeking only to please China.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said the ministry should have a 24-hour emergency reporting system to immediately contact its offices in other countries, as any delay in a sea rescue effort could have serious consequences.
Tsai asked MOFA to present a list of officials responsible for the delayed response to the incident and apologize to the public.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
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