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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Diplomacy
Envoy presents credentials
Paraguayan Ambassador Ramon Antreo Diaz Pereira presented his credentials to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in a ceremony at the Presidential Office yesterday. Chen extended a warm welcome to Diaz upon his arrival to take up his Taipei assignment. Noting that the Republic of China and Paraguay have maintained diplomatic ties since 1957, Chen said the bilateral relationship is based on the shared values of freedom and democracy. "Geographic distance has not hindered our friendship and cooperation because we have a shared belief in freedom and democracy," Chen said.

■ Peace
Kinmen `can be Panmunjom'
A lawmaker from Kinmen suggested yesterday that the outlying island be made into a "truce area" like the village of Panmunjom that straddles the border between North Korea and South Korea in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone. New Party Legislator Wu Cheng-tien (吳成典) said that since the presidential candidates from both the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the "pan-blue" alliance made up of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party have come up with proposals to establish a "peace experimental zone" or a "demilitarized zone," Kinmen could be an ideal place for peaceful and regular cross-Taiwan Strait dialogue.

■ Cross-Strait Ties
Students visit China
A 144-member group of university students arrived in Beijing Tuesday night for a 10-day visit. The group is made up of undergraduate and graduate students from National Taiwan University, National Tsinghua University, National Sun Yat-sen University, Fu Jen Catholic University and Soochow University. Most of the students are visiting China for the first time. The group, sponsored by the Ten Outstanding Young Persons' Foundation, will also visit Shanghai and Hangzhou during the trip, as well as engage in exchanges with Chinese university students.

■ Education
More volunteers sign on
Eleven young Americans yesterday signed contracts with the Nantou County Bureau of Education and two private organizations to teach English in remote areas of the county. The group, the third of its kind, will begin to work this week in primary schools located in remote areas of the county. They will work until the end of June. Under the "English Albert Schweitzer Project," King Car has cooperated with the American Christian Organization and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) to organize summer camps for children in Nantou County and has recruited Americans to work as volunteers.

■ Politics
Control Yuan blasts Cabinet
Control Yuan members yesterday proposed a corrective measure to the Executive Yuan, as they deemed that Cabinet members did not perform their duty of reporting to lawmakers on the operation of a Cabinet-level task force for countering the spread of SARS last year. "The Executive Yuan failed to fulfill its duty of reporting to the legislature on the establish-ment and operation of the committee for the prevention and relief of the SARS virus," the measure said. The correction said that scholars and authorities on laws held that the Cabinet could face a charge of negligence if its members simply shrugged off the duty of submitting to a special supervisory committee in charge of monitoring the operation of the Cabinet's task force.

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