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REFERENDUM IS TO MAINTAIN PEACE IN TAIWAN STRAIT: ROC PRESIDENT

2003-12-10 22:21:16

    Taipei, Dec. 10 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Wednesday that his plan to call a "defensive referendum" on the day of the presidential election next March 20 is to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait area.

    Chen made the remarks in his speech delivered after accepting the nomination by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as the party's candidate in the upcoming presidential race.

    Holding the referendum has nothing to do with the independence-unification issue, but to practice democracy and to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, Chen stressed. "No one can force the people of Taiwan to see Beijing's deployment of missiles directed at the island as a normal development and no one could construe the 23 million people's intention to pursue democracy and to maintain peace as provocative," Chen emphasized.

    Noting that holding a referendum is a normal practice in a democratic nation and a basic right of the people, Chen said that the people of Taiwan can loudly vow to the world that "They are opposed to missiles and want democracy; they are opposed to the war and want peace."

    It is to show the international community, particularly Beijing, that the use of military force can never serve as a means or a option to solve the so-called Taiwan issue, Chen said.

    The president announced earlier this month that the topics to be voted on in Taiwan were whether or not the people would wish to have mainland China withdraw the nearly 500 ballistic missiles currently targeting Taiwan soil and whether the mainland should renounce any use of force against Taiwan.

(By Huang Kwang-chun)

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