International law applies
There was a lot of questionable content in your recent article about fisheries talks with the Philippines (“Taipei, Manila might hold fisheries talks next week,” June 3, page 4).
First, there is the statement that “Taiwan does not consider the Philippines’ claim of rights in a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles as compliant with international law and sees the area of [sic] between 12 and 24 nautical miles (44.4km) off the Philippines as part of an exclusive economic zone in which Taiwanese fishing boats can operate legally.”
However Washington on Sept. 2, 1999, announced that the US was extending “the US contiguous zone from 12 to 24 miles, doubling the area within which the US Coast Guard and other federal authorities can board foreign vessels and take other actions to enforce US law.”
They claimed that “under international law, a nation can claim a territorial sea up to 12 nautical miles from its coast, and a contiguous zone extending an additional 12 miles Within the contiguous zone, a nation can act to prevent violations of its environmental, customs, fiscal or immigration laws, or to apprehend vessels suspected of violating them.”
If the government believes that the Philippines is wrong to enforce its laws within its contiguous zone, then does the government also believe that other countries are wrong to do the same in their contiguous zones or does it only become an issue when it affects the “right” of Taiwanese fishermen to invade and illegally fish in another country’s territory?
Also, what does “part of an exclusive economic zone in which Taiwanese fishing boats can operate legally” mean?
In the English language, the word “exclusive” is an adjective meaning “excluding or not admitting other things” or “restricted to the person, group, or area concerned.”
When most people around the word refer to their “exclusive economic zone” they are referring to an area that only their country can exploit economically and people from other countries can rightfully be restricted from exploiting.
It seems strange that the government considers waters within 24 nautical miles off the coast of the Philippines part of their “exclusive economic zone.” I seriously hope this is not going to be the government’s official negotiating position next week.
Martin Phipps
Taichung
Protecting POW sites
Taiwan has selected 18 potential world heritage sites in the hope of them making the official UNESCO World Heritage site list.
Unfortunately, none of the Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camps set up in Taiwan during World War II are included. It is a pity, since other heritage sites from World War II in other countries are protected and preserved as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Auschwitz II-Birkenau (a Nazi German concentration and extermination camp) and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979 and 1996 respectively.
The former is where Jews were tortured and killed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The latter marks a memorial to those killed by the detonation of an atomic bomb over Japan during World War II. Both sites bear the memories of World War II in human history.
In Taiwan, there were 16 Japanese POW camps, including two temporary camps, during World War II.
More than 4,350 Allied POWs brought by Japan from the Pacific battlefield were incarcerated.
The Pingtung camp is special because all POWs captured by Japan were shipped there and then transferred to other camps in Taiwan, Japan or then-Manchuria.
These POWs were soldiers and officers from the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. They were slaved and tortured under poor conditions; starved and denied medication. Many died from malnutrition, disease, beatings and overwork. The death rate in Taiwan was among the highest of all the POW camps during World War II. Therefore, POW camps in Taiwan store a bleak, but memorable part of human history.
These POW camps integrate Taiwan’s past with world history. Unfortunately, most Taiwanese do not even know these POW camps existed. Indeed, these camps are of significance to human history and should not be excluded from the list of Taiwan’s potential World Heritage sites.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Taiwan used to play a significant role in history, but bafflingly appears too quiet about this historic event.
The history of the POW camps should be brought to light.
Wang Chingning
Pingtung
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