A delegation of Taiwanese medical experts managed to attend yesterday's session of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Conference on the Health Aspects of the Tsunami Disaster in Asia, despite being barred from attending the first day of the meeting due to pressure from China.
Tsai Ming-che (
However, David Nabarro, representative of the WHO Directorate General for Health Action in Crisis and organizer of the conference, asked Tsai and his delegation not to attend the opening session of the conference on Wednesday, saying China had lodged an objection against the Taiwanese experts' presence at the event.
The WHO headquarters in Geneva and its office in Bangkok faces great pressure from China, said Nabarro, who refused to issue participant badges to Tsai and other Taiwanese delegates at the conference.
"China oppressed us in the conference for no reason and forcefully turned the event into a political issue," Tsai told the Central News Agency in Phuket yesterday.
Nabarro insisted he did not invite Taiwan's Department of Health (DOH) to join the conference. However, the DOH's Bureau of International Cooperation denied the claim yesterday, producing an e-mailed invitation as proof.
In an e-mail with the subject line "Taiwan MOH [Ministry of Health]-WHO Conference Invitation from Dr. Nabarro," dated April 15, Jennifer Volonnino, conference assistant of the WHO's Directorate Health Action in Crises, thanked Taiwan for its interest in the event and wrote: "We hope you are able to attend this important event."
As a result of Nabarro's intervention, the Taiwanese delegation was prevented from taking part in any conference sessions on Wednesday.
Tsai and the other Taiwanese delegates yesterday walked straight into the conference venue and joined panel discussions, without consulting Nabarro, who saw them enter the meeting room but said nothing, according to Peter Chang (張武修), director-general of the DOH's Bureau of International Cooperation.
But participant badges were not issued to the Taiwanese delegates. As a result, they could only join the conference as ordinary citizens, and their presence at the conference would not appear in the WHO's official record of the event.
"The most important thing is to be able to participate in the conference," Tsai told the Central News Agency.
British and Australian medial experts who witnessed the treatment the Taiwanese delegates received at the conference, said China's oppression of Taiwan was unbelievable, Tsai said.
"China keeps saying it wants to help Taiwan join the World Health Assembly (WHA), but it would not even allow Taiwanese delegates to participate in the Tsunami Health Conference," Tsai said.
"It is more than obvious that China has been using a two-faced strategy on Taiwan. China is not trustworthy at all," Tsai said.
According to the DOH, Minister of Health Hou Sheng-mou (侯勝茂) will write a letter of protest to WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook about the way the Taiwanese delegates were treated at the conference.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu (
Beijing promised to help Taiwan join the WHA, the WHO's highest governing body, slated to meet in Geneva from May 16 to 25, after Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in Beijing last Friday.
However, China's behavior at the tsunami conference showed that its words and actions are "two different matters," Lu said.
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