Amnesty warns against excessive force
　

WORLD IS WATCHING: Amnesty International’s statement will draw global attention to the government’s response to tomorrow’s ‘Wild Strawberry’ protest, one diplomat said
　

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER , WASHINGTON
Saturday, Dec 06, 2008, Page 1

Amnesty International has issued a thinly disguised warning to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), urging him not to use excessive police force to control and break up the unauthorized protest march planned for tomorrow by the “Wild Strawberry” student movement.

“Taiwan’s Control Yuan should address the serious concerns raised by civil society in Taiwan and the government should cease the practice of using the Assembly and Parade Law to deny freedom of assembly and allow individuals to protest peacefully,” read a statement released by Amnesty International offices around the world on Thursday.

The statement has helped draw global attention to the protests and a Washington-based Western diplomat said it was now certain that “the eyes of the world” would be on Taiwan this weekend.

It is the latest in a string of international criticisms in recent weeks of the Ma administration’s alleged misuse of the Taiwanese justice and police systems to undermine human rights.

Freedom House — the US-based pro-Democracy group — has called for an independent investigation into violent clashes between police and activists protesting the visit to Taiwan by Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).

The International Federation for Human Rights has also charged that arrests and violence during the visit were “grave violations of human rights under the pretext of national security,” and a substantial number of foreign experts on Taiwan called for reform in two open letters published by the Taipei Times.

Amnesty International also called for the Control Yuan to conduct an independent inquiry into alleged excessive police force during the protests last month.

“Civil society groups in Taiwan are investigating multiple claims that individuals suffered head injuries and broken fingers at the hands of police during the protests,” said the Amnesty statement.

It added: “Taiwanese civil society groups claim that police have applied the Assembly and Parade Law arbitrarily to silence dissent.

“Taiwanese police and judicial authorities should ensure that they investigate any protesters accused of engaging in violence in a fair, transparent and timely manner in compliance with international standards,” the statement said.

The Wild Strawberry Student Movement has staged sit-ins since Nov. 6 to protest what they consider the use of excessive force during Chen’s visit.

In related news, the Paris-based Club des Taiwanais — formed by Taiwanese living in France — plans to condemn the Ma administration in an event to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris tomorrow.

“Several incidents in Taiwan have sparked reactions from international human rights groups,” the club said in a statement on its Web site. “And this crisis of setbacks in human rights is related to China’s political expansion.”

The statement cited the large-scale detention of opposition politicians, the alleged police brutality against anti-China protesters during Chen’s visit and Ma’s remark on Wednesday that the time was inappropriate for the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan as examples of a regression in human rights.

“All these [incidents] have led to a lot of criticism, but Ma resolved to employ harsher measures against the critiques,” the statement said in English. “When university students staged a sit-in protest, demanding that relevant government officials be punished, Ma responded with promotion of police chiefs engaged in human rights abuses.”

The Club des Taiwanais will make the statement at the event, which was organized by the Federation des Pays Asiatiques pour les Droits de l’Homme (Federation of Asian Countries for Human Rights), and it called on people from all countries to “support human rights in Taiwan by pressuring through all possible channels and express your support to those Taiwanese who are fighting against government violence.”

DPP chair pans Ma over remarks on Dalai Lama
　

YOU'RE NOT WELCOME: When President Ma met a delegation from Italy, they lauded Taiwan’s freedom of religion while mentioning the controversial refusal

By Mo Yan-chih and Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTERS
Saturday, Dec 06, 2008, Page 3

“A president should represent the values of his people.”— Tsai Ing-wen, DPP chairperson
　

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference yesterday that as Taiwan and Tibet faced similar situations in the international community, the government should sympathize with Tibet.

“I always found it hard to understand why countries would join China in oppressing Taiwan, but now Taiwan is cooperating with China to oppress Tibet,” she said. “A president should represent the values of his people.”

Her comments came after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Wednesday that the Dalai Lama was not welcome to visit Taiwan.

Ma’s comments, which contradicted remarks made in March that he would welcome the Tibetan spiritual leader, attracted strong criticism from pan-green and pan-blue politicians, who urged him to reconsider.

Meanwhile, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the DPP would work with religious groups to invite the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan.

Cheng said Ma spoke up for Tibet and supported the Dalai Lama during his presidential campaign, but reversed his position after being elected.

He added that Ma had yielded to Beijing, and the “people Beijing does not welcome, Ma Ying-jeou also does not welcome.”

At a separate setting, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-Ling (管碧玲) said the DPP caucus would launch a “one person, one letter” campaign, urging every Taiwanese to send a letter to the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama based in Taiwan inviting the Dalai Lama to visit.

Also yesterday, Ma repeated his rejection of the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit, but added that he would welcome a visit “when the time is right.”

“Taiwan has been very friendly to the Dalai Lama, and he has visited Taiwan twice before. But now is not the best time for him to visit,” Ma said when meeting a delegation from the Italian parliament at the Presidential Office.

Ma made the remarks when his guests, led by Italian Senator Salvo Fleres, mentioned the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit while lauding the freedom of religion in Taiwan.

Ma said that although Taiwan welcomed religious people from all over the world, now was not the right time for the spiritual leader to visit.

Now we’re really being watched

Saturday, Dec 06, 2008, Page 8

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of today is not the same as the KMT of the 1950s and 1960s, even if some officials in its uppermost ranks clearly long for this to be so.

This means that the party is limited to some extent in its ability to influence proceedings throughout systems of government and oversight mechanisms. Although checks and balances can be weakened to the detriment of higher democratic standards, the interests that would line up to oppose this drift might be more subtle and more numerous than mainstream political forces recognize or would admit to.

What is clear, however, is that the drift has begun. Unexpectedly, the reaction from overseas observers and experts has put the issue on the table of Cabinet ministers and the president much earlier than more sober KMT strategists might have hoped.

From now on, pro-China members of the KMT will know that any attack on civil liberties, legal rights and political freedoms will be recorded, reported and potentially criticized in a manner likely to embarrass and offend. Embarrassed will be those officials who insist that they are not merely doing the bidding of KMT headquarters. Offended will be advocates of “unification,” who resent the reality that foreign individuals, groups and governments have a stake in Taiwan resisting Chinese autocracy.

When it comes to international opinion from people with a personal or institutional connection to Taiwan, an easy majority supports Taiwan’s ability to determine its own affairs, and not China’s agenda of ingratiation, intimidation and violence.

The sequence of events is quite predictable. Organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders determine that there is a consistent pattern of inappropriate governance or other misuse of power. Letters and reports are written, politicians are lobbied and media outlets report and dissect the resulting debate. These labors set the stage for intervention by governments of influence or their envoys, most of whom act quite conservatively until a battery of facts is available.

Taiwan has now reached the unfortunate point of being on the watch list for rights groups, and not just those interested in the fate of a former president.

The impact of this attention cannot be underestimated in a country that tends to define intellectual excellence and authoritativeness in terms of what other countries say and do. The hastily composed reactions of the Judicial Yuan and the minister of justice to a recent open letter from experts on Taiwan and China on the erosion of justice is a case in point.

Thus, if the government elects to continue moving in a direction compatible with integration with China — generating the decay of human and legal rights, the compromising of national security, the emasculation of the military and the narrowing of the gap between state and party power — the inescapable net result would be concern and criticism from around the world and an acute loss of face.

But if the government moves back toward steadfast protection of self-determination while enhancing trade and financial ties with China, then it would receive applause from all involved — except China, of course.

The choice may seem simplistic, but these are the poles between which the government and a KMT leadership overly bound by nostalgia must choose.

Events of the last few weeks have shown the Ma administration that there are far more people here and overseas who care about Taiwan’s future and are ready to speak out than those who grasp his opaque vision of national compromise.