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Hundreds protest against Alishan
relocation project
LAND GRIEVANCES: Demonstrators were angry at the proposed
¡¥model community¡¦ in which they would be relocated, saying it treated Aborigines
like commodities
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Apr 25, 2010, Page 3
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Tsou Aborigines from Alishan yesterday attempt
to close off the narrow, winding road that connects the popular tourist
destination to the outside in order to protest a government plan to resettle
them outside of their traditional domain.
PHOTO: HSIEH YIN-CHUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Holding banners and wearing traditional outfits, hundreds of Tsou Aborigines
from Alishan (ªü¨½¤s) yesterday attempted to close off the narrow, winding road
that connects the popular tourist destination to the outside to protest a
government plan to resettle them outside of their traditional domain.
¡§Give us back our lands! Give us back our lands!¡¨ Hundreds of Tsou shouted as
they protested on a section of Alishan Highway in Alishan Township, Chiayi
County.
The protesters engaged in pushing and shoving with police when they tried to
move to the middle of the highway to block it off.
Shouting, yelling, minor physical clashes and a standoff between the two sides
continued for about two hours.
The Tsou held the demonstration to oppose a county government plan to resettle
residents originally living in parts of Alishan affected by Typhoon Morakot in
August last year.
¡§The government should respect our wishes: We don¡¦t want to leave our villages
and if we have to leave our villages, we want to at least resettle within the
township,¡¨ Typhoon Morakot Survivors¡¦ Self-Help Association of the Alishan
Region chairman Avai Akuyana said.
¡§Right now, the county government plans to construct a new ¡¥model community¡¦ in
Chukou Village [IJ¤f], Fanlu Township [µf¸ô], to resettle us. According to the plan,
however, the ¡¥model community¡¦ is a village with a performance hall and souvenir
shops for tourists. There is even a ticket booth at the entrance of the ¡¥model
village,¡¦¡¨ Akuyana said. ¡§This is unacceptable. They are treating Aborigines as
merchandise,¡¨ he said.
The tribe was never consulted and not a single Tsou was on the panel of experts
that drew up the plan, he said.
¡§[The county government] does not understand us. It doesn¡¦t know anything about
our culture and it¡¦s not even trying to understand,¡¨ Akuyana said.
Tzeng Tsung-kai (´¿Úz·_), a Chiayi County Government official, told the Taipei
Times via telephone that the plan was only a draft and that nothing had been
finalized.
¡§If the residents are not happy with any part of the plan, we would continue to
negotiate with them and see what we can do,¡¨ he said.
¡§Our most important objective is only to find a safe place for them to resettle
so that they don¡¦t ever have to evacuate again,¡¨ Tzeng said.
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