Taiwan enlists the help of rocker Ozzy Osbourne to gain elusive UN membership

Published on Thursday 5 July 2007 00:17

AFTER 14 failed attempts at joining the United Nations, using media campaigns and presidential appeals, Taiwan is turning to a goth-rock band backed by Ozzy Osbourne in its quest for membership to the world body.

The band, called ChthoniC, will this year tour at least 80 cities in four countries, supported in part by the Taiwan government, which is providing pro-UN literature and a slogan-painted lorry. The band will visit Canada, Germany, the UK and the United States.

ChthoniC has also recorded a song urging the UN to let Taiwan join, even though its bid for membership keeps being knocked down because of objections from Beijing.

"I'm not for any political party, but I'm for my poor country joining the United Nations," the band's lyricist, Freddy Lim, told reporters yesterday at the launch of the tour.

Lim said Osbourne, the Birmingham-born Black Sabbath singer, with whom ChthoniC has personal connections, was helping to set up 20 of the US gigs and paying some of the transport costs.

Taiwan's leadership will reapply for UN membership later this year, the cabinet's news office said this week.

China blocks self-ruled Taiwan's applications every year, because it sees the island as part of its territory and not a separate country.

The two sides split after civil war in 1949, and Taiwan left the United Nations in 1971 under Chinese pressure.