Taipei - Taiwan on Thursday denied giving a
5-million-US-dollar donation to the first lady of Panama, saying the
money was part of Taiwan's official humanitarian donation and will go
into Panama's treasury.
'There was an open donation ceremony on January 17. Panamanian
First Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro said
the money would go into Panama's treasury and its use would be
supervised by Panama's auditing department,' Yeh Pi-fei, deputy
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told a news conference.
'Since President Martin Torrijos came to power, his priority has
been social welfare and caring for the disadvantaged. So when Taiwan
and Panama discussed cooperation projects, the priority was also to
help the disadvantaged. This is a meaningful cooperation project,'
she said.
On Wednesday, the Panamanian daily La Prensa reported that Taiwan
had given a 5-million-US-dollar private donation to the office of
Panama's First Lady Vivian Fernandez de Torrijos.
The article said the donation was not part of the official
donation Taiwan made in 2006 which included helping Panama build a
230-bed hospital and building highways in far-away regions in Panama.
The article quoted China's trade office in Panama as accusing
Taiwan of using chequebook diplomacy to maintain its diplomatic ties
with Panama.
Although La Prensa said the donation was 5 million dollars,
Taiwan's donation was actually 5.5 million dollars, presented at an
open ceremony to Panamanian First Vice President and Foreign Minister
Samuel Lewis Navarro on January 17.
At the ceremony, Lewis said the money would be used to carry out a
'barrier-free life' project for the physically challenged and a
'micro-enterprise development' plan, according to a report in the
Taipei Times on January 19.
The internationaly-isolated Taiwan currently is recognized by only
24 countries, half of them are in Latin America.
China, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province, is wooing
these countries to switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing. China
and Taiwan often accuse each other of using chequebook diplomacy to
win over each other's diplomatic allies.
In recent years, several former Central American leaders have been
implicated in corruption scandals, including allegedly accepting
donations from Taiwan.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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