PEACEMAKING: Deputy Secretary-General to the President Joseph Wu says the nation should provide humanitarian assistance to the region in an effort to deter extremism

Taiwan should provide humanitarian assistance to the Middle East, an official of the Presidential Office said yesterday, because it would be the "best way to deter extremism and terrorism."

Deputy Secretary-General to the President Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) made the remarks at a seminar sponsored by the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan to share its experience of a recent visit to Israel and to Palestinian refugee camps.

The foundation, established two years ago with the aim of promoting cross-strait peace, organized a tour last month to the volatile region to learn more about it.

Wu said that Taiwan has to be concerned with the situation in the Middle East, as it affects the whole world.

Noting that the restive region has left many feeling so oppressed that they have had to resort to extreme violence to seek revenge and obtain their own justice, he said he does not approve of the use of violence as it can't resolve problems. He added that many Palestinians have lived in the refugee camps for 40 or 50 years and have lost hope of ever having their homeland returned to them.

"Such desperation creates a hotbed of breeding extremism and terrorism," Wu said.

He said that the foundation's visit showed Taiwan's concern for the situation in the region and that Taiwan should at least provide humanitarian assistance such as daily necessities and medical assistance.

Chien Hsi-chieh, executive director of the foundation and a former legislator, said that nowhere in the region is safe, and that with the jobless rate among Palestinian youths as high as 70 percent, their desperation makes them easy to recruit as suicide bombers.

He said violence can't solve problems but only deepens hatred. He added that the foundation is against the US plan to attack Iraq and hopes that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will state unequivocally Taiwan will never support such an attack.

Ping Lu (平路), a cultural observer, said that the only beneficiaries of the Israeli-Palestinian clashes are politicians.

Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒), an associate professor at Tamkang University, pointed out that Taiwan has little understanding of the situation in the Middle East or of the deep-rooted hatred in the region and has shown little concern for a long time.