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SEF asks for China's help in return of army private

With precious little hope of a response, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) yesterday faxed its Chinese counterpart for help in returning to Taiwan a Matsu-based army private who vanished last Saturday.

The private, Liu Chin-hung (劉晉宏), disappeared from a Matsu-bound boat and is said by the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) to have been rescued by a Chinese fishing boat.

ARATS notified PFP lawmaker Tsao Yuan-chang (曹原彰) of the incident Monday, bypassing the SEF -- Taiwan's sole authorized private body to negotiate with China.

Jan Jyh-horng (詹志宏), SEF deputy secretary-general, told the Taipei Times yesterday that the SEF was following "the official cross-strait communication procedure" to express Taiwan's concern about Liu and hoped that ARATS could provide assistance on the matter.

China has refused to negotiate with Taiwan and unilaterally closed the channel between ARATS and the SEF after former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) proposed a "special state-to-state" discourse in 1999.

Liu is receiving treatment in a hospital in China's Fujian Province. He is known to have boarded the Matsu-bound passenger vessel -- which had been leased to the military -- in Keelung, but did not disembark in Matsu.

An official from the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday that the ministry does not know how he left the vessel.

Tsao went to Fujian yesterday to visit Liu and discuss his return with officials from ARATS.

In a telephone interview, Tsao said that Liu's health was not well enough to come back to Taiwan immediately.

"We probably have to wait for few days to get him back," he said.

According to Tsao, since the channel between ARATS and the SEF has been closed, he and a private organization which he heads have established a good relationship with ARATS.

"We can do a lot to facilitate the development of cross-strait relations," he added.

Facing the development that ARATS is now contacting lawmakers and private organizations rather than the SEF, Jan declined to comment.

"We have done what we can," he said.
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