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Taiwan will deal with Philippines peacefully: president

ROC Central News Agency

2013/05/16 17:36:42

Taipei, May 16 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday that Taiwan's demands to the Philippines over a fatal shooting incident are justified but also said that his government will deal with Manila peacefully.

In his first public comments since Taiwan imposed sanctions on the Philippines the previous day, Ma said that Philippine personnel used "excessive force" May 9 when they killed Hung Shih-cheng, a 65-year-old Taiwanese fisherman operating in the two countries' overlapping exclusive economic zones.

Describing the action as "outrageous behavior," Ma said the attack on Hung's fishing boat was "without justification whatsoever, either under traditional international law or the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea."

Two days after the shooting, Ma's government made four demands and gave Manila 72 hours to comply. They included a formal apology, compensation for the fisherman's family, punishment of those responsible for the shooting and talks on the signing of a bilateral fishery agreement to help prevent similar incidents.

"These demands are fully supported by international law and practice," Ma told a conference of the International Law Association.

"(But) their response two days ago failed to meet the four demands of our government, so we decided to launch 11 peaceful sanctions," he said.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III sent an envoy to Taiwan Wednesday to "convey his and the Filipino people's deep regret and apology" to the Hung family and to the people of Taiwan "over the unfortunate and unintended loss of life," a statement that served merely to fan the ire of the Taipei government.

Angry with the way Manila responded to Taiwan's demands, Foreign Minister David Lin refused to meet with the envoy but sent a lower-level official in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs instead. The Hung family also turned down a request for a meeting with the envoy.

Ma said in his remarks to the conference that Taiwan is a peace-loving country and will continue to deal with the Philippine government in a peaceful way.

He added, however, that he hopes Manila will realize that it has to act responsibly. "Killing unarmed innocent people on the high seas is not an act tolerated by any civilized nation," he said.

He made the remarks as Taiwanese fighter jets, Navy warships and coast guard vessels converged in a show of force in waters between the two countries to demonstrate Taiwan's determination to protect its fishermen.

(By Kelven Huang and Jay Chen)