23119: (Chamberlain) Taiwan to watch China's peacekeeping mission in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

TAIPEI, Sept 7 (AFP): Taiwan will keep a close watch on rival China's plan
to send riot police on a United Nations peacekeeping mission to its
diplomatic ally Haiti, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday.

Beijing will send 125 policemen and policewomen to the war-torn Caribbean
state later this month, marking its first-ever dispatch of riot police
abroad.

The move was to comply with a peacekeeping mission of the UN, which ousted
Taiwan to accept China as a member in 1971.

"China has attempted in different ways to sabotage Taiwan's diplomatic
relations. We will monitor closely its police deployment in Haiti," said
ministry spokesman Michel Lu.

Haiti is among 26 countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan
instead of China, which claims sovereignty over the island.
Taiwan-Haiti ties were firm with various cooperation projects continuing,
Lu said.

He added that President Chen Shui-bian last week held a talk with President
Boniface Alexandre of the Haitian interim government on strengthening
bilateral ties while they were in Panama on official visits.

Taipei and Beijing have been bitter rivals since their split in 1949 and
have long engaged in a diplomatic tug-of-war trying to woo allies away from
each other with generous economic and financial aid.