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UN group wants Chen video conference

The UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) is trying to persuade the UN to allow it to hold a video conference with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at UN headquarters when Taiwan launches its 12th bid to enter the world body next week, government officials said yesterday.

The video conference, if it takes place, will be the first one Chen had with UNCA.

The Government Information Office (GIO), which helped organize the conference, will explain Chen's planned meeting with UN correspondents at a press conference today.

"GIO Director-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) will preside over the press conference ? Issues for Chen to discuss with the UN correspondents have been planned, but Chen will decide himself what to say to the reporters," an unnamed GIO official said.

The video conference is part of the GIO's plan to bring Taiwan's UN bid into the limelight, said the official, who described the conference as a "breakthrough" in Taiwan's efforts to join the UN.

"The video conference will definitely take place. It will be either inside UN headquarters or outside it," Andrew Hsia (夏立言), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, said on Tuesday.

Taiwan will launch its 12th bid to enter the UN at the 59th UN General Assembly session, demanding the UN's recognition of representatives of Taiwan's 23 million people in the world body.

The UN General Assembly session is scheduled to open on Tuesday at UN headquarters in New York.

UNCA wishes to hold the video conference on Wednesday. "UNCA wants to have the video conference inside UN headquarters, but the UN Secretariat and related units hope it can reconsider the plan," Hsia said.

According to Hsia, the Secretariat told UNCA that holding the video conference inside UN headquarters will violate a UN resolution which recognizes the representatives of the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN.

"However, UNCA adheres to the principle of press freedom and has been quite firm on having the conference inside UN headquarters. We will respect UNCA's decision and do our best to help organize the conference," Hsia said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters at UN headquarters on Tuesday that he was not clear about details of the proposed video conference, but said that the UN's "one China" policy remained unchanged, according to the Central News Agency.

Meanwhile, a lobbying group for Taiwan's UN bid, which mainly consists of overseas Taiwanese in New York and members of the Taiwan Presbyterian Church, will call on a number of countries' representatives to the UN to solicit support starting on Monday.

The group will call on UN representatives from Pakistan, Laos, Sudan, Egypt, South Africa, Indonesia and China to lobby for Taiwan's UN bid, group members said.
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