'State abandoned its people': Families condemn KDRT's early pullout in Nepal floods

Families of Korea South-East Power (KOEN) employees missing after massive flooding in Nepal have sharply condemned the government's decision to pull the Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) out of the country early, saying "the state has abandoned its own people." The families said the government unilaterally notified them of the withdrawal without fulfilling the mission period it had promised and without conducting proper ground searches.

The families of the KOEN employees who lost contact in the Nepal floods held a press conference at a hotel in Kathmandu on Wednesday and released a statement titled "Emergency Accusation Statement by Families of the Missing Over KDRT's Unilateral Termination of Search Operations."

"At 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday, the KDRT at the Batar base camp in Nepal ended its on-site search, citing a safety assessment by the Nepali military and fire department, and is preparing to withdraw," the families said in the statement. "This is an early withdrawal that does not even fulfill the 10-day mission period the government promised, and the decision was made without a single genuine ground search ever having been conducted in the zone where the evacuation routes of KOEN employees and survivor testimonies had been secured."

"They brought 44 personnel and 7 tons of equipment, but only seven people and four drones were actually deployed on the ground," the families said.

"They publicized that they had been authorized to conduct on-foot searches, but without a single actual foot search, they announced there was nothing unusual based on aerial surveys and vehicle movement, and now they have declared the search over, citing safety," the families said. "Was there truly no way to deploy personnel and equipment for a real search? Civilian search teams have already been searching for days in places where the Koreans are presumed to have taken shelter."

The families also said key search coordinates secured by civilians and companies were thoroughly ignored. "We repeatedly relayed to the government the on-foot search routes secured by KOEN and civilian search teams, as well as the escape routes of local Nepali employees, but the KDRT never once conducted a proper search of this area," the families said.

"State the basis on which you decided to end the search and are preparing to withdraw," the families said, and went on to say, "The rescue team leader was passive and defensive about the search from the outset, and it is highly doubtful whether the possibility that the missing are still alive was ever seriously considered in the search," they criticized.

The families strongly urged the government to immediately halt the unilateral termination of the search and the early withdrawal.

"Put down the withdrawal equipment and immediately resume the last ground search of the remaining blind spots in cooperation with civilian search teams and local military and police before withdrawing," the families said. "We hope that, even just once, an effective search will show that this country still exists," they called for.