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Protesters, police
clash; both sides cry foul
PUTTING ON A SHOW: Both sides held rival press
conferences after the protest was broken up, with police and protesters
displaying their bruises
By Lee Hsin-fang / Staff reporter
A woman tries to stand up as
police disperse a protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential
Office in Taipei yesterday during which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Taipei City Councilor Tung Chung-yen, DPP Greater Tainan Councilor Wang Ding-yu
and other elected representatives delivered a protest letter for President Ma
Ying-jeou.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party
acting chairperson Chen Chu, front center, and other party members hold a press
conference in Taipei yesterday to urge the public to take to the streets on
Saturday for a march against President Ma Ying-jeou for making life more
difficult for the public.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
councilors and protesters yesterday clashed with police at a rally in Taipei
against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), leaving dozens of protesters and police
officers injured.
The protest, led by DPP Greater Tainan Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) and DPP
Taipei City Councilor Tung Chung-yen (童仲彥), was held on Ketagalan Boulevard near
the Presidential Office, five days after a 13-day sit-in ended violently on
Saturday.
“We only intended to make a peaceful appeal, which does not require any prior
application, as it is not deemed an assembly or parade, and we had a protest
letter for Ma. However, we were forcefully evicted by police,” said Wang, who
suffered an arm injury and accused police of assault.
Wang said he would press charges with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office
today.
Accompanied by injured officers, Wu Ching-chung (吳進忠), deputy director of Taipei
City Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct, held a press conference
shortly after the incident and accused Tung and other protesters of assaulting
police.
“Three male and nine female officers were injured during the eviction and the
police department will collect evidence related to the attacks and handle the
matter in accordance with the law,” Wu said as two officers showed wounds on
their arms.
The police began taking protesters away from the scene after they had explained
to the protesters that their assembly was unauthorized, Wu said, adding that
some pushing and shoving had occurred in the process.
Countering the accusations, Tung said that the police launched a “sneak attack”
and that he was injured on one side of his abdomen and suffered bruising on both
arms.
Holding a press conference to showcase the wounds sustained by police officers
was merely staging a show, Tung said.
An unidentified woman, who was also injured in the protest, said she was shoved
to the ground and trampled by police.
She said her lip was split in the melee.
Earlier yesterday, several pastors from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan held a
press conference on Ketagalan Boulevard to lodge three appeals to Ma, calling
for a two-year freeze on fuel and electricity prices, maintaining a ban on any
meat products containing ractopamine residue and amending the Referendum Act
(公投法) to allow contentious livelihood issues to be dealt with via referendum.
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan General Assembly moderator Pusin Tali (布興大立), who
presided over the press conference, said Ma had flip-flopped on his electricity
rate-hike policy, which was initially to be a one-time increase, but was
subsequently revised to a three-stage process.
“Following the Jan. 14 presidential election, the root source of Taiwan’s social
disturbances and public panic has been Ma himself,” he said, adding that a
national leader who only brings more suffering to the people does not deserve to
be one.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
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