Marching to the beat of a large wooden drum, about 500 doctors, pharmacists and dietitians marched in Taipei yesterday, protesting the nation's recent failure to gain an observer seat in the WHO.
Marchers protested outside government offices, urging officials to do more to encourage Taiwan's allies to support Taiwan's bid for a seat.
Support for Taiwan was so thin in the World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting last Monday, that it didn't even include the issue of the nation's observer status bid on the agenda of the WHO's yearly meeting, which was held in Geneva last week. The WHA is the WHO's highest decision-making body.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Taiwan's failure was a result of an effort by Beijing to persuade its allies to speak out against Taiwan's participation during the meeting.
But instead of putting all the blame for Taiwan's failed bid on China, which strongly opposes the nation's membership in major world organizations, marchers yesterday called on the government to start pushing harder for a seat now, a year ahead of the WHO's next annual meeting.
"We need to make it clear to our allies that Taiwan wants to become an observer," said Huang Ching-shun (
"We need to work hard, start now, and keep it going all the way until next year," said T.S. Peng (
Though US President George W. Bush had signed a bill authorizing the US State Department to help Taiwan gain observer status and the secretary of the US Health and Human Services agency Tommy Thompson had also voiced support for Taiwan's bid last Tuesday in Geneva, Taipei still couldn't muster enough support.
In addition to the US, Japan is in favor of Taiwan's participation.
Last Tuesday Yasuo Fukuda, a Japanese government spokesman, said that being geographically close to Taiwan, the Japanese government is interested in any effort that would help raise Taiwan's health care standards.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the body's meeting in Geneva on Friday, 16 representatives from 16 countries voiced explicit support for Taiwan's bid to participate in the WHA as an observer.
The MOFA said that health ministers, vice ministers and other officials from the 16 countries spoke either at the WHA's steering committee meeting and plenary sessions or at its roundtable discussions in support of Taiwan's appeal.
The 16 nations were Senegal, Burkina Faso, Honduras, Belize, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi, Grenada, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Liberia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Guatemala, Haiti, Chad and Gambia.
In order to assure a better chance next year, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Chiou Jong-nan (
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