Wild Strawberries forced to vacate Liberty Square
　

‘VERY ASHAMED’: DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen said she did not understand why police had to use force to end the sit-in, as the students had agreed to leave
　

By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 12, 2008, Page 1
　

The Wild Strawberry Student Movement yesterday criticized the government after the surprise eviction by police early yesterday morning of the 40 student protesters and a group of Tibetan activists who remained at Liberty Square following the students’ rally on Sunday.

“[The eviction took place] less than 24 hours after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said [at a Human Rights Day event] that people in Taiwan enjoy the most freedom to assemble and parade [in the world],” movement spokesman Lo Shih-hsiang (羅士翔) told a press conference.

“At about 5am, the students who were staging a silent sit-in at Liberty Square were besieged and removed by police along with about 100 Tibetan activists, without any warning. We are very ashamed by [the police action],” Lo said.

The movement said on Sunday evening it would suspend the sit-in following the rally earlier that day and explore other means to achieve its objectives.

Despite the decision, about 40 students chose to continue the sit-in at the square.

ORDER

Another spokesman, Feng Chun-shan (奉君山), told reporters police had been urging the students to leave since Sunday and issued an eviction notice at about midnight on Wednesday on the grounds that the students had not applied to stage their sit-in in accordance with the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法).

At around 4am, about 200 police officers arrived to evict the Tibetan activists, who were released in Neihu (內湖) and Guandu (關渡).

At about 5:30am, police moved on the students, who sat down, joined hands and struggled with them.

The students were finally evicted and brought to National Taiwan University.

BACK

Some of the students returned to the square yesterday morning, but their tents and equipment were taken by police.

Feng said some students claimed to have overheard police saying that the students were being removed because they had offered supplies to Tibetan activists, who began their own sit-in on Monday.

Feng said the eviction showed that the Ma administration wanted to avoid the Tibet issue.

Zhongzheng First Precinct chief Chen Ming-cheng (陳銘政) told reporters yesterday that the students were evicted because the precinct had received numerous complaints about the occupation of the square.

Asked to comment on the eviction, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said all assemblies and parades must be conducted in a legal manner.

Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the DPP opposed the decision to remove the students.

Tsai said police should not have forcibly removed the students, especially as they had agreed to leave.

She said the measures were reminiscent of police action during protests against the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last month.

Police should have waited, Tsai said, adding: “What’s the rush? I do not understand.”

Commission promises to assist Tibetan refugees
　

ANGER: Some Tibetans questioned the government's commitment to helping them, saying they had waited a long time for the administration to act on their case
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 12, 2008, Page 2
　

The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) promised to help Tibetan refugees yesterday, saying those who entered the country illegally may be granted legal resident status.

More than 100 Tibetans have been staging a sit-in at Liberty Square in Taipei since Tuesday, demanding that the government grant them legal resident status or at least a work permit.

They were forcibly removed from the demonstration site and dropped off in the outskirts of the city, including Guandu (關渡), Nangang (南港) and in the mountains in Neihu (內湖) at around 3am yesterday.

While a majority of the group — who speak little Mandarin — struggled to find their way back, 10 members who have been living in Taiwan for decades and are naturalized Taiwanese turned to the commission to plead for help for their Tibetan comrades.

“There are hundreds of Tibetans out there who entered Taiwan on forged [Indian and Nepalese] passports — they don't have stable jobs because they cannot legally work here,” Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association chairman Jangka (蔣卡) told reporters.

“They live in extreme poverty and often wake up in the morning not knowing where their lunch and dinner will come from. They cannot return to India, they have nowhere to go now,” he said.

“Please help them. Give them at least work permits so they can live,” he said.

A Tibetan who has no legal resident status in Taiwan told the Taipei Times that he makes about NT$10,000 (US$299) a month doing part-time jobs and lives with 13 other Tibetans in an 85m² apartment with one living room and two bedrooms.

Commission Secretary-General Chien Shih-yin (錢世英), who received the Tibetan representatives, said that help from the commission was on the way.

“We understand that it's difficult to find jobs without legal status, but it's not an issue that can be resolved by the MTAC alone,” Chien told the Tibetans.

“That's why we're in the process of coordinating efforts with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Immigration Agency and the Ministry of the Interior to revise the Immigration Act [出入國及移民法]” Chien said. “We're doing something — but please understand that this cannot be done within one day.”

Chien's words failed to pacify the Tibetans.

“You always want us to wait, wait, wait — how long do we have to wait? Ten years?” one of them shouted.

Chien then threatened to discontinue the talk if the Tibetan representatives continued shouting.

Taiwan Friends of Tibet vice chairman Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), who accompanied the Tibetan, said the government should treat Tibetans without legal status in Taiwan in the same way it treated refugees from Thailand and Myanmar earlier this year.

Around 400 stateless Thai and Myanmar refugees who entered the country illegally were granted temporary residency so that they could work before the Immigration Act is amended.

Chien agreed and promised the commission would try to forward the proposal during Cabinet meetings.
　

Taiwan should seek spotlight on human rights: forum panel
　

‘SMALL CASE’: US human rights activist and supporter of Taiwan democracy Linda Gail Arrigo said Taiwan needs to ‘stop crying to the international community’
　

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 12, 2008, Page 3

Taiwan must strive to become a more active human rights advocate despite its alienation from the global community, academics and activists said yesterday at the International Human Rights Forum in Kaohsiung, stressing that Taiwan should augment its human rights aid to other parts of world.

The forum, attended by 150 participants and activists from Japan, Canada, Nepal, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, was held in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Without directly commenting on recent accusations of human right violations leveled at the government, the speakers mostly urged the audience to safeguard the dignity and the rights of people in Taiwan and abroad.

One academic raised the question of how different Taiwan’s human rights condition would be if it had not suffered 37 years of alienation from the international community after it forfeited its UN seat back in 1971.

“What would have happened if in the last 37 years, [Taiwanese officials] were involved in the UN human rights protection movement … and responsible in preparing human rights reports before UN committees?” asked Peter Huang (黃文雄), director of Amnesty International Taiwan.

Despite lacking access to the formal international human rights authority, he said, Taiwan has been fortunate enough to receive help from the non-official regimen through various non-government organizations and human-rights watchdogs which he believes to be the major support for Taiwan’s human right campaigns. He called on NGOs to continue to provide help to buttress Taiwan’s human rights development, calling Taiwan a “needy case.”

Disagreeing with Huang, US human rights activist and long-standing supporter of Taiwan democracy, Linda Gail Arrigo, said Taiwan needs to “stop crying to the international community,” but try to become a more active player in improving human-rights conditions around the world.

Taiwan, she said, is a “small case” compared the much more severe human rights infringements going on in other parts of the globe such as Iran, Iraq and Africa.

“Taiwan needs to learn how to solve its own problems,” she said, saying that after decades of growth, Taiwan now possesses the skills and the resources to assist neighboring countries, such as the Philippines, in ameliorating the human rights deficiencies in those lands.

One crucial step in improving Taiwan’s human-rights scene, said Fort Liao (廖福特), an Academia Sinica research fellow, is to amend the Constitution “because the 1949 document fails to include all the tenets of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

The panelists agreed that even without formal UN membership, Taiwan must adhere to the UN protocols on human rights to ensure unalienable rights.