Indonesia yesterday described President Chen Shui-bian's (
Jakarta also ordered an investigation into the stopover, saying that Chen had permission only to refuel -- not conduct other activities.
Chen landed late on Thursday on the small island near Singapore on his way back from his trip to Latin America. He met with at least one lawmaker yesterday and was scheduled to tour local factories before leaving.
Foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said that Chen and his entourage had landed on Batam after being given permission to refuel "with the understanding that they would continue their flight."
"Therefore it's a technical matter, the landing. Because the nature was technical, it was beyond the knowledge of the foreign ministry in the sense that we didn't make any special arrangements for this aircraft," he said.
"We regret the aircraft remained on the tarmac and stayed longer after they finished refuelling. We also regret the fact that there were activities outside that technical fuelling," he said.
"We know that representatives of Taipei in Jakarta made arrangements for the passengers of the aircraft to do sightseeing. We regret that fact too," he said.
Indonesian law minister Widodo Adisucipto told reporters that the local governor in Riau Province, where Batam is located, has been ordered to investigate the stopover because Chen was given permission only to refuel, which would normally take only a couple of hours.
"The president has ordered the governor of Riau province to check on the activities of the plane that landed in Batam because it has violated the permission given to it by the transport department," he said.
"[Chen] is still in Batam and doing things without the government's knowledge," he said early yesterday. "We recognize only one China."
However, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said yesterday that the president's transit through Indonesia had been carefully coordinated and not an abrupt decision that surprised the Indonesian authorities.
Lu said that the wire reports of Indonesia's dissatisfaction could be attributed to pressure on Jakarta from China. He said that it would not have been possible for Chen and his entourage to stay on Batam without prior planning.
Meanwhile, Indonesian lawmaker Ade Nasution, who is also a wealthy businessman, said he wasn't concerned about the diplomatic implications of his meeting with Chen yesterday.
"I told him that the important thing is that we need investment so all the unemployed people can get jobs," Nasution told el-Shinta radio station.
"The government has no right telling us what to do," Nasution said. "The `one China' policy is the business of the foreign ministry, not me."
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS