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Executions will not help ties: EU body
DEATH PENALTY: A European Parliament subcommittee said
Taiwan's resumption of executions would not help it in its effort to achieve
greater international recognition
By Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, May 06, 2010, Page 1
The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights yesterday voiced concern
over Taiwan's recent execution of four convicts, saying it could impact on
relations with the EU.
Taiwan's ending of a moratorium on the death penalty ˇ§will certainly not help
improve EU-Taiwan relations and will not help Taiwan in its strive towards
greater international recognition,ˇ¨ said a statement issued by subcommittee
president Heidi Hautala and subcommittee vice president Laima Andrikiene MEP,
who also serves as the vice chairperson of the European Parliament Taiwan
Friendship Group.
Over the years, the European Parliament has been supportive of Taiwan's bid to
join various international organizations, including a resolution in March
backing the nation's participation as an observer in the International Civil
Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
However, Taiwan's execution of four inmates on death row on April 30 ˇX the first
time the death penalty had been carried out in the country since December 2005 ˇX
has aroused concerns in the EU over what some have described as a setback for
efforts the nation has made to abolish capital punishment.
On Saturday, Catherine Ashton, the high representative for foreign affairs and
security policy of the EU and the first vice president of the European
Commission, issued a statement condemning the executions.
Yesterday's statement by the parliament's subcommittee added that the resumption
of executions ˇ§acts stronglyˇ¨ against Taiwan's aspirations to join the UN and
other international organizations.
Hautala and Andrikiene said Taiwanese officials had said on numerous occasions
that they would continue the process of constitutional review of capital
punishment, exhaust all other possible remedies for the 44 prisoners on death
row and refrain from hastily resuming executions.
However, they ˇ§did not keep their pledges,ˇ¨ Hautala and Andrikiene said.
ˇ§Nor has the current ruling Kuomintang party made sufficient steps to seek for a
cross-party consensus on the abolition of death penalty inside Taiwan,ˇ¨ they
said.
Human rights are at the core of EU's value system and the EU places great
significance on the defense of human rights, including the right to life, in its
external policies, the statement said, adding that the principle of defending
human rights worldwide is enshrined in all major EU documents devoted to
external policy.
In an e-mail to the Taipei Times on possible fallout of the executions on
Taiwan's bid to gain visa-waiver status from the EU, Andrikiene said: ˇ§The
opponents of Taiwan will exploit every issue that speaks against your country.ˇ¨
ˇ§There is no direct relationship between the visa issue and the death penalty,
but when Taiwan's visa-waiver case is discussed in the European Parliament, all
issues will become important, especially everything related to human rights,ˇ¨
Andrikiene said.
On March 25, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyu-shun (¨H§f¨µ) told the
legislature's Foreign and National Defense Committee that he expected Taiwan's
request for visa-waiver status to be presented to the European Commission for
deliberation within a few weeks, but voiced concern that the death penalty issue
could weigh against Taiwan's case.
The ministry said on Tuesday that Taiwan's visa case had not been presented to
the commission.
Javier Hou («J˛M¤s), another vice minister of foreign affairs, yesterday told
lawmakers that the ministry had not seen any impact from the executions and
Taiwan's visa request.
ˇ§I don't dare say that is no corelation between the two matters. We can't rule
out the possibility, but we hope that it will not happen,ˇ¨ he said.
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