The Taiwan Society yesterday urged everyone to send a protest letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for rejecting Taiwan's request to join the world body.
The UN Office of Legal Affairs said in a brief statement posted on the UN Web site on Monday that it had rejected President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) letter to Ban in which he reiterated Taiwan's request to join the UN under the name "Taiwan."
Taiwan Society chairman Wu Shuh-min (吳樹民) called on everyone in the nation to write letters to protest Ban's rejection of Chen's request and voice the public's determination to defend Taiwan's sovereignty.
A sample protest letter could be downloaded from the society's Web site (www.taiwansociety.org.tw) and mailed to the society to forward to the UN, Wu said.
"We are confident that we can collect at least 100,000 letters and then send them to the UN Secretariat before the UN General Assembly in September," Wu told a press conference sponsored by a several pro-independence groups.
The groups issued a joint declaration at the press conference titled "We shall overcome and never give up -- support Taiwan's UN bid." The declaration slammed Ban's rejection and suggested that the government and the people take action to support Taiwan's UN bid.
The society's secretary-general, Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), said it was untenable for Ban to reject Taiwan's UN application without passing it on to the UN Security Council or the General Assembly for a formal review.
Lo criticized the world body for violating its rules. He said UN Resolution 2625 states that "all peoples have the right freely to determine without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic social and cultural development" and "membership is open to all peace-loving states which accepts the obligation contained in the present [UN] Charter."
The UN made two mistakes in its handling of Taiwan's application, Lo said.
First, he said, Taiwan had requested to "join the organization," not "return" to it. The content of the UN Resolution 2785, which Ban cited as the basis of his rejection failed to meet the current reality, he said.
Taiwan has evolved into a democracy and does not claim to represent China but the 23 million people of Taiwan, he said.
"With that regard, it is time to seriously reexamine the obsolete document," Lo said.
Second, he said, it was wrong for the UN Secretariat to conclude that "Taiwan is part of China" under Beijing's "one China" policy, he said.
Lo urged the government to launch a defensive referendum asking "Do you accept that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China?" to show Taiwan's determination to defend its sovereignty..
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