|
|
|
Taiwan's
UN body bid on Aug 28, 2004 US
helps push for Taiwan's UN body bid By
Charles Snyder The country's prolonged effort to become a member of the UN body that sets
and monitors international aviation safety standards is likely to get a boost
next month, when a US congressional subcommittee is scheduled to take up the
issue. The aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee is planning to hold a hearing next month on the issue, which could
result in legislation urging the administration to push for Taiwan's membership,
congressional sources tell the Taipei Times. The hearing will come as the US continues to be concerned with aviation
safety and security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York
and Washington, and with Taiwan's important role in the global aviation
marketplace. The hearing was called by subcommittee chairman John Mica of Florida. Mica
"has had a keen interest in Taiwan's ability to become a full member of
ICAO," said a staffer of the aviation subcommittee. "His rationale for that is based on a post-9/11 world where safety and
security information is important globally, and Taiwan's aviation presence, and
frequency and operations to the United States are continuing to grow," he
said. "We believe that it is important that [Taiwan] receive and participate
in the process that we are dealing with in safety and security," the
subcommittee source said. The hearing, originally announced Monday, was scheduled to take place on
Sept. 9, but a scheduling conflict involving one of the witnesses arose. Jim
Hall, former chairman of America's National Transportation Safety Board and
scheduled witness, had a conflict, and the hearing had to be delayed. Hall is
widely considered one of the US' preeminent aviation safety experts. Other scheduled witnesses include Jessika Ko, an outside attorney with
Taiwan's China Aviation Administration (CAA), and Fred Laird, a former East Asia
official with the US government's Federal Aviation Administration, which
regulates US aviation and air safety. While there are no current plans for legislation proposing Taiwan's
membership in the ICAO, a Mica aide said, "I think the chairman will make
that decision after the hearing." There has been support for the nation's ICAO membership in Washington in
recent years, but that has taken a back seat to Taiwan's efforts to gain
observer status in the annual meetings of the World Health Assembly in Geneva,
and participation generally in international organizations, including those that
require statehood for membership. But with the continuing concern over global terrorism and the important
role that international aviation can play in the terrorist threat, at least some
US leaders now feel that Taiwan's exclusion from international organizations
could have a direct impact on US safety and security.
Repatriations
to resume: MAC OUT
OF MONEY: After claiming for months that the boat used to transport the
repatriated Chinese was being repaired, China has indicated that it's set to
sail again By
Melody Chen China has expressed
willingness to bring back some of its illegal immigrants from Taiwan for the
first time since President Chen Shui-bian won his second term in March, the
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san said at a press conference that the Red
Cross Society of China told its Taiwanese counterpart that Beijing wishes to see
the repatriations begin by the end of this month. "We warmly welcome China's willingness to bring back the illegal
immigrants ? Perhaps China wants to let these people reunite with their families
for the coming Moon Festival," said Chiu. Analyzing why Beijing decided to make the move now, Chiu said China
probably does not want to see the illegal immigrants become a political issue
during campaigning for the year-end legislative elections. The last time China collected the illegal immigrants was March 12. After
that, China claimed the boat it dispatches to bring back the inmates was
undergoing maintenance and ignored Tai-wan's repeated requests to resume
repatriations. "I don't know whether the boat's problem has been fixed. No matter
which boat China sends to collect the inmates, I would respect its
decision," Chiu said. According to established practice, Taiwanese boats would ferry the inmates
to Matsu, where a designated Chinese boat would collect them. As China has refused to pick up the illegal immigrants since March, the
detention centers in Hsinchu, Ilan and Matsu have been overcrowded and the
council has spent the entire annual NT$34.2 million budget the government
earmarked for the inmates. "We ran out of the budget at the end of June and had to ask for extra
funds to care for the inmates," Chiu said. According to the council, a total of 2,760 inmates are waiting for
repatriation, with 1,191 in Hsinchu, 1,339 in Ilan and 230 in Matsu. The council has provided a name list of more than 2,000 of the inmates to
the Red Cross Society of Taiwan and asked the body to send the document to its
Chinese counterpart, said Chiu. "The Chinese police will check the name list and decide how many
people they will collect," he said. Chiu also said the government will tighten its control and management
regarding Chinese tourists in Taiwan in the wake of two cases of Chinese tourist
groups absconding en masse in Taiwan. Chiu said, however, that the policy of Taiwan keeping its doors open to
tourists from China will remain unchanged. Chiu said that the MAC has convened two supra-division meetings since July
13, when 17 mainland tourists absconded upon arriving at Chiang Kai-shek
International Airport. Chiu said that in addition to adopting some new measures -- such as having
the Travel Agent Association of the Republic of China screen the backgrounds of
potential mainland tourists to try to prevent future incidents -- the MAC is
reviewing opinions from other government agencies on the matter. Chiu said the agency has found loopholes in related policies since Taiwan
opened its doors to certain categories of mainland tourists three years ago. Prior to the opening, he said, the government looked at similar policies
adopted by Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia and their experiences. Reviewing similar conditions in major countries throughout the Asia-Pacific
region, Chiu said, the ratio of Chinese tourists absconding in Taiwan is lower
than that of other Asian countries. Quoting tallies compiled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July, Chiu
said that the ratio of Chinese tourists to Taiwan absconding was 0.23 percent,
compared with 0.37 percent in Japan, 3 percent in Australia and 10 to 13 percent
in South Korea.
Al-Qaeda
evades UN dragnet with cheap weaponry TRANSFORMED
THREAT: A new UN team reports that the terror network has decentralized, with
fewer fund transfers and less centralized planning The Al-Qaeda network
spent less than US$50,000 on each of its major attacks except the Sept. 11
suicide hijackings, and one of its hallmarks is using readily available items
like cellphones and knives as weapons, a new UN report says. The first report released on Thursday by a new team monitoring the
implementation of UN sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban detailed just
how little it cost al-Qaeda to mount operations, and how most of its attacks
involved arms and explosives so unsophisticated they aren't covered by the
punitive measures. For example, the report said the March attacks in Madrid, in which nearly
10 simultaneous bombs exploded on four commuter trains, used mining explosives
and cellphones as detonators and cost about US$10,000 to carry out. The blasts
killed 191 people in Spain's worst terror attack. Only the sophisticated attacks in the US on Sept. 11, 2001, using four
hijacked aircraft "required significant funding of over six figures,"
the report said. The report said UN sanctions have only had "a limited impact,"
primarily because the UN Security Council has reacted to events "while al-Qaeda
has shown great flexibility and adaptability in staying ahead of them." It cited al-Qaeda's transformation from an organization supporting Afghan
fighters run by Osama bin Laden to an initiator and sponsor of terrorism from an
established base, "to its current manifestation as a loose network of
affiliated underground groups" with common goals. This global network of groups doesn't wait for orders from above but
launches attacks against targets of their own choosing, using minimal re-sources
and exploiting worldwide publicity "to create an international sense of
crisis," the report said. "There is no prospect of an early end to attacks from al-Qaeda
associated terrorists," it said. "They will continue to attack targets
in both Muslim and non-Muslim states, choosing them according to the resources
they have available and the opportunities that occur." The report said al-Qaeda has promoted "the idea that Islam and the
West are now at war," and appealed to "a widespread sense of
resentment and helplessness in the face of the West's political and economic
hegemony." With the exception of the Sept. 11 attack, al-Qaeda's operations have been
inexpensive, the monitoring team said in the report to the Security Council. The twin night club bombings in Bali in October 2002 killed 202 people and
cost less than US$50,000. So did the twin truck bombings of the US embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, which killed 231 people, including 12
Americans, the report said. And November 2003 attacks in Istanbul -- four
suicide truck bombings that killed 62 people -- cost less than US$40,000. UN sanctions require all member states to impose a travel ban and arms
embargo against a list of those linked to the Taliban or al-Qaeda, currently 317
individuals and 112 groups, and to freeze any assets. Sanctions were first im-posed
on bin Laden's group in 1999. The report said not a single country reported stopping an arms shipment or
banning entry to a Taliban or al-Qaeda member on the UN list. Punitive measures
to stop the financing of terrorist attacks have had some effect and led to
"millions of dollars of assets" being frozen, but much more needs to
be done to crack down on terrorist-related transactions, especially those going
through informal channels, it said. "As a result of national and international action, al-Qaeda's funding
has decreased significantly. But so, too, has its need for money," the team
said. The number of people in training camps controlled by al-Qaeda "is now
far less, and al-Qaeda no longer pays the US$10-20 million annually that it gave
to its Taliban hosts" in Afghanistan before a US-led force routed the
government in late 2001, it said. While some money for the al-Qaeda attacks since 1998 may have come from
"the center," the report said "much of it will have been
collected locally, whether through crime or diverted from charitable
donations." One of al-Qaeda's "hallmarks" is the simplicity of its methods,
including the transportation and weapons it uses -- for example, just small arms
and knives in the attack on a residential compound in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, in
May 2004 that killed 22 people, the report said. But there is evidence al-Qaeda wants to acquire "the means to
construct bombs that would disperse chemical, biological or radiological
pollutant," the monitoring team said, "and the threat to use such a
device was repeated, albeit obliquely, in a communique from the Abu Hafs
Brigade, an al-Qaeda offshoot, on July 1, 2004." "Al-Qaeda related groups have tried at least twice to buy the basic
ingredients for a dirty bomb and a good deal of the necessary technical
knowledge is available on the Internet," it said. "There is real need
therefore to try to design effective measures against this threat."
Lee's
good intentions By
Jason Lee Boon Hong As a Singaporean, I
found it fitting that new Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong chose to address the
Taiwan issue ("Taiwan has no intention of provoking China: Su,"
Tuesday, Aug 24, page 3) during his inaugural National Day speech.
Traditionally, the prime minister of Singapore presents a live televised speech
in the month of August to outline the policies and measures the government will
adopt over the next year. The issues covered during such speeches include
measures to encourage pregnancies, improve education and financial policies. Our Taiwanese friends should not regard Lee's comments in a negative way.
After all, at no time did Lee express any regrets over his four-day visit to
Taipei last month. He merely regretted that such a visit caused some hiccups in
Singapore-China relations. Also it should be noted that Lee never apologized to
China for visiting Taiwan. It is evident that Lee felt his visit to Taiwan was necessary. I believe
many Singaporeans, including myself, supported the prime minister's visit. It
would have been absurd for Lee to cancel the visit just because Beijing opposed
it. Singapore is not a state of China and if it was to succumb to China's
unreasonable demands, it would have cast a doubt over the sovereignty of the
nation. Singapore is a small city-state but our integrity and sovereignty will
never be compromised as a result of threats from a major power. Having followed the cross-straits issue since 1999, I share the sentiments
of Presidential Office General Su Tseng-chang that Taiwan holds "good will
and a practical attitude" about the situation in the the Strait. And
contrary to what some critics of President Chen Shui-bian claim, he has never
increased tensions with Beijing since he took power in May 2000. On the
contrary, my personal observation is that the actions of the Chinese leaders are
the provocative ones, threatening military action against Taiwan. On Lee's remarks that "Singapore would not support Taiwan if the it
provoked a cross-strait conflict," I wonder what, then, the position of my
country's leadership would be if a conflict is provoked by China? I believe Lee
is merely urging Taiwan's government to be responsible in maintaining a cool and
passive stance. Lee probably meant well when he indicated that the Taiwanese media
generally has a localized approach. Based on experience of Taiwan, I would say
that I share that observation. The perception from the international community
is that the Taiwanese people are more interested in which celebrity is dating
which, rather than the latest news from Iraq. This is where the media plays a
crucial role. Credit should be awarded to some media organizations which not
only cover local and entertainment news. One example of this is the Taipei
Times, which I read online daily. I hope the Taiwanese people would adopt a
more globalized outlook and be wary of international events. Su's graciousness
ad humility (and probably that of Chen's administration) is exemplified by his
willingness to study Lee's overall observations about Taiwanese society and its
politics and then seek to amend the mistakes if what Lee said is true. In a way, I feel that the ball is in now China's court. They should adopt a
more proactive approach to improving cross-straits relations. A strategy of
`give and take' is inevitable if both sides are to benefit. While I am not
optimistic of such an approach by Beijing in the near future, I am optimistic
that relations between Singapore and Taiwan will be maintained at their warm,
cordial level. I sense that continuous levels of cultural, economic, political and
educational exchanges between the two countries would benefit both Singapore and
Taiwan.
|
|
|
