22
HKB OGO
060 /1
Pa
RECEIVED IN SE
15 MAY 1990
10-1413 TAIWAN-GODDESS
DESK
GODDESS OF DEMOCRACY MAKES RADIONDCONTAC
By Jane Macartney
ABOARD THE GODDESS OF DEMOCRACY. DEMOCRACY
ship Goddess of Democracy,
X
VOWS TO CONTINUE
15
Max10, Reuter
The radio
which plans to beam pro-democracy
a will go ahead with
broadcasts to China from waters off Taiwan its mission despite a statement from Taipei that the venture is 111 egal # organisers said on Thursday.
a
We have not come half way around the world to be turned back now;
said Christophe Nick magazine Actuel, one of the organisers of
a reporter for the French
The ship on Thursday made its first radio contact with
the project, Taiwan,
its final destination before heading for international waters off the Chinese coast.
Nationalist-ruled Taiwan, where the ship plans to refuel take on fresh supplies, has been cool project.
in its support for the
and
Taipei has been technically at war with Beijing since communist forces drove the Nationalists into exile 1949 and officials say privately they fear any open support for
in Taiwan in the ship could provoke an angry reaction from China.
The cabinet on Thursday said Taipei would allow the ship to dock, but could not support its plans to make unauthorised broadcasts from the open seas which would violate both international law and communications agreements Taipei.
signed by
The Goddess, now on the 55th day of its voyage from the French port of La Rochelle, has not decided when to ask for permission from Taiwan to dock at the northern port of Keelung »
We expect to dock at Keelung at the very latest on Saturday," " said Captain Dominique Perrot.
Keelung port authorities say they need 24 hours to process docking application.
મ
The Goddess of Democracy, named after a students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square that was smashed when
statue erected by troops put a bloody end to pro-democracy protests in June, plans to transmit programmes of news, music and interviews with Chinese dissidents to the Chinese mainland.
om
Nick
at
The vessel intends to make its broadcasts round-the-clock both medium- and short-wave from waters just off Taiwan, said. The transmitters for the broadcasts will be taken on Keelung, he added.
The ship plans to spend a month in waters off China and will end its broadcasts after June 4, the anniversary of the military attack on Tiananmen Square in which hundreds, possibly thousands, of people died.
Project organisers had feared that China, which has called the ship part of a plot to overthrow the Beijing government, would try to stop the boat reaching Taiwan.
But the voyage from Singapore was uneventful. On Thursday, two Nationalist military reconnaisance planes lazily circled the ship several times before returning toward Taiwan
on Thursday, Yan Jiaqi,
་
In Taipei on Thursday, dissidents and head of the Paris-based Federation for
one of China's top Democratic China, hailed the Goddess as
an effort supported by
the whole world to break through the news blackout in mainland China. 77
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