|
Taipei police rough
up Chen supporters outside presidential office building
February 11, 2013 By: Michael Richardson
http://www.examiner.com/article/taipei-police-rough-up-chen-supporters-outside-presidential-office-building
ROC police arresting an elderly
Chen Shui-bian supporter
Photo credit: YouTu screenshot
As members of the Taiwan Justice Rescue
Force step up their campaign to free imprisoned Chen Shui-bian they become
targets of police determined to squelch their protests. On Friday, Aquia Tsay,
Taiwanˇ¦s leading democracy advocate was forced to the ground after being placed
in a chokehold at the Taipei Railway Station during a demonstration. Meanwhile,
over at the Republic of China in-exile presidential office building, another
group of Chen supporters was assaulted by police.
Leading the attack on a gray-haired man was a tall policeman nicknamed ˇ§190ˇ¨ by
protesters because of his height. In December, ˇ§190ˇ¨ was one of the policemen
that violently pulled Aquia Tsay and two other Rescue Force members out of a car
at the Democracy Camp site. Aquia went to the hospital with a concussion and the
other two suffered bruises, scrapes, and sore necks.
The police violence against demonstrators at the presidential office building
was caught on video and the plight of a gray-haired man was captured by the
camera. The man was forced over to a police car and when a woman tried to
intervene to stop the manhandling of the gray-haired man she too became a
target. The woman passed out from the crush of police and collapsed on the
street. Rather than provide any medical attention they dragged her limp body to
the side of the demonstration area and dumped her there to recover on her own.
The elderly man at the center of attention in the video is no stranger to close
contact with police. On International Human Rights Day two months ago the man
was protesting Ma Ying-jeou at an event in Taipei. Because police were then
surrounded by news media covering Maˇ¦s speech they merely pushed the gray-haired
man out of an aisle instead of giving him the kind of unwanted attention he
received at the presidential office building.
The street protests are part of an growing campaign to secure the release of
Chen Shui-bian from prison. Chen, the former ROC president from 2000 to 2008,
has been jailed since soon after leaving office. Chen was charged with
corruption and sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence following a controversial
trial.
Chen Shui-bian has had a harsh prison life, confined 23 hours per day in a tiny
damp cell with no furniture, not even a bed. Denied requested medical care,
Chenˇ¦s health has seriously declined in jail and he now is confined to a
hospital cell on a locked psychiatric unit in a government hospital.
Because the allegations against Chen Shui-bian involved corruption, leaders of
Chenˇ¦s Democratic Progressive Party have largely sidestepped Chenˇ¦s plight for
fear of being linked to corruption allegations themselves. The silence of party
leaders on Chen has led to groups like the Taiwan Justice Rescue Force and
street demonstrations to argue Chenˇ¦s case.
Supporters of Chen Shui-bian are calling for immediate medical parole, a new
trial with a jury, and other reforms. Academics who have studied Chenˇ¦s case say
that not only did the former leader not get a fair trial but that his
prosecution is politically motivated and orchestrated in Beijing by the Chinese
Communist Party. In Taiwan, the Kuomintang is the dominant party and has adopted
a ˇ§one Chinaˇ¨ policy that parallels the Communist dogma. With the KMT moving
closer to the CCP, the scholars argue that Chenˇ¦s advocacy of Taiwan
independence is what is behind his troubles.
The United States, which is the ˇ§principle occupying powerˇ¨ of Taiwan under the
San Francisco Peace Treaty that ended World War II with Japan, has been
officially silent on Chen Shui-bian. The American Institute in Taiwan monitors
news on Chen but leaves all decision-making and action to Washington, D.C. where
the mantra is no comment.
The sixty-seven year ˇ§strategic ambiguityˇ¨ that clouds Taiwanˇ¦s international
status now swirls around Chen making the former leader a one-man metaphor for
the islandˇ¦s future and raising the probability of more clashes between police
and Chen supporters who have taken his case to the streets.
|
