The World Health Organization (WHO) invited PFP Legislator Kao Ming-chien (
Kao was among the last group of experts recommended by China to the WHO to join the conference and most experts of the group on the same list were from China's Shanxi and Hebei Provinces, where SARS cases have been reported, sources said.
Taiwan's delegation to Kuala Lumpur, headed by Director of Center for Disease Control (CDC) Su Ih-jen (
Before the delegation's departure for Malaysia, the Cabinet clearly stated that Kao was not a member of the delegation. Kao arrived at Kuala Lumpur yesterday, whereas the government's delegation arrived on Sunday.
The two-day SARS conference kicks off today in Malaysia's Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, close to the nation's capital city Kuala Lumpur. Participants from 192 countries will be joining the conference on the 21st century's first emerging disease.
The Department of Health recommended four Taiwanese experts to attend the conference. The WHO accepted all four.
Two of them, Chang Shang-chwen (
The doctors lost their opportunity to attend the conference, however, because they -- after having handled SARS patients -- did not have enough time to isolate themselves for 10 days to fulfill the conference's health regulations for participants from affected areas.
The other two experts recommended by the government to attend the conference are Su and Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an Academia Sinica researcher. Both were invited to speak at the conference.
Sources said high-ranking officials at the Geneva-based WHO headquarters informed the Taiwanese government that a fifth Taiwanese expert would be invited to the conference without the government's recommendation several weeks before the event.
"The WHO's decision-making process to invite the Taiwanese experts to the conference was so complicated that WHO Director-General [Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland] had to get personally involved to settle the issue," the official said.
The WHO's invitation letters to the four Taiwanese experts to join the conference were e-mailed to Beijing on June 6. The Beijing-based Chinese Medical Association delivered the letters to Taiwan last Tuesday, sources said.
Upon receiving the letters, the DOH asked the WHO to change the contents of the letters because they indicated that Taiwan was a part of China. The WHO then sent another set of invitations directly to the experts on Wednesday.
"By the second time the WHO sent its invitations to Taiwan, it was already too late for Chang and Chen to isolate themselves," a source said.
"If the WHO had directly sent the letters to Taiwan on June 6, the doctors would have been able to attend the conference," the source added.
The WHO's invitation to Kao reached Taiwan on Thursday and indicated in French that Taiwan was a province of China.
Kao, who did not move to ask the WHO to alter his invitation letter, said upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur that the conference should focus on technical rather than political issues.
The Taiwanese delegation is prepared for China to introduce Kao as a member of its delegation at the conference to manifest its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.
Su said the Taiwanese delegation is prepared for any action China may take at the conference that will affect Taiwan's national status.
China may list Taiwan as one of its provinces in today's morning conference session entitled "National Response" or Chinese experts may attempt to answer participants' questions about Taiwan's SARS outbreak.
The Taiwanese delegation planned to hold an international press conference immediately after today's "National Response" session to clarify Taiwan's status if China claimed Taiwan as one of its provinces in its SARS report, officials said.
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