Taiwan monitoring situations in Sudan, Ivory Coast

Taipei, Jan. 11 (CNA) Taiwan is closely watching political developments in the African countries of Sudan and Ivory Coast but is not ready to make further assessments of the situations, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said Tuesday.

Sudan, where 4 million residents in the south started a week-long referendum Sunday to determine whether to declare independence, and Ivory Coast, where the president-elect has yet to be determined since an early December election, were not stable, said Bruno C.H. Shen, deputy director-general of the MOFA's Department of African Affairs.

It is widely expected that the majority of southern Sudanese, who are mostly Christian or animist in contrast to the Muslim-dominated north, will vote to secede from Sudan, he said, but whether the south could officially declare independence by July 9 as planned was doubtful.

Asked by reporters whether Taiwan planned to recognize the new country, if it is established, Shen said the MOFA has been monitoring the situation and would definitely weigh its options.

"There are a lot of issues (for Sudan) to be solved, among them the redrawing of territorial borders and the distribution of oil fields between the south and the north, " he said.

The attitude of the north, where the country's government is based, will also be a determining factor in the outcome of the referendum.

"With so many variables and the current instability in the country, the issue of recognition is not on our mind at this moment," he said.

In the western part of the continent, Ivory Coast finds itself in a political stalemate, after both incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo and opposition leader Alassane Ouattara both declared themselves the winner in the country's December presidential election.

The United Nations reported that some 200 people have been killed or have disappeared in the past month in the ensuing political conflict.

"Taiwan does not want to see the situation being solved through armed conflict, " Shen said.

The ministry has advised seven Taiwanese businesses in Ivory Coast to take precautions and temporarily leave the country if necessary, Shen said.

"However, they didn't want to leave, saying that their companies were located in the suburbs of Abidjan, where the situation remained stable, " he said, referring to the country's biggest city and former capital. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls

China to face more international pressure before Olympics: MAC

Taipei, Feb. 15 (CNA) China is expected to face intensified pressure from the international community before the Beijing Olympics over its support for Sudan's government, but Taiwan so far has no plans to boycott the Games, a Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said Friday.

"The Olympic Games have been given multiple meanings. As the host country, China has been under tremendous pressure, but it should not shun its obligations as a member of the international community either, " MAC Vice Chairman Liu Te-shun said in response to a question on American film director Steven Spielberg's withdrawal as an artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics.

Spielberg made the announcement Tuesday after failing to prod China to do more to end the conflict in Darfur in western Sudan that has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced more than 2 million people.

Before Spielberg withdrew, a number of celebrities, international media watchdogs and human rights organizations had been calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics because of China's support for the Sudanese government, which has been blamed for most of the atrocities in the conflict and used Chinese-made weapons against its enemies.

Asked if Taiwan would consider boycotting the event, Liu said that "there have been no substantial discussions on that matter from our side."

China has been engaging in an intense competition for energy and mineral products as part of its "peaceful rise, " which was why it had to develop close diplomatic relations with a number of authoritarian regimes, Liu said.

The United Nations and other international organizations are trying to pressure China and ask it to play a more positive and responsible role in handling the Darfur situation and domestic human rights protection, Liu said.

"If China wants to assure the international community about its peaceful rise, it should not merely sit by and watch -- or shield -- the injustice in front of its face. For the international community, that would be ironic and reveal China's anti-democratic attitude and lack of respect for human rights, " he said.