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Miaoli activists vow
to fight on
UP CLOSE: Criticizing a city government decision
to block an evening protest, activists said they would press on and set up a
stage next to police barricades
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
A poster announcing a concert to
oppose the Miaoli County Government and protect Miaoli that is to be held in
Dapu Borough on Friday is pictured in this screen grab taken yesterday from the
Facebook page of the Youth Alliance for the Protection of Miaoli.
Photo courtesy of The Liberty Times
Accusing the Miaoli County Government of
using a technicality to block a rally scheduled for Friday to protest the forced
demolition of houses in Dapu Borough (大埔), young activists yesterday vowed to
hold the event regardless of the consequences.
Nearly a month after the county government’s forcible demolition of houses in
Dapu Borough, rights activists are planning to hold demonstrations in both
Miaoli and Taipei because the local and central governments have failed to
apologize for the demolitions.
However, the Miaoli City Government — which administers Miaoli City, the seat of
the county government — turned down an application from activists to hold a
demonstration on Friday evening in front of its offices, saying that the protest
might “block the way for people going in and out of the county government’s
offices on official business,” despite the demonstration being scheduled to
begin at 6pm, outside of office hours.
Following the rejection of the demonstration application, the Miaoli Police
Precinct approved an application for a parade. However, it limited its time to
between 2pm and 5pm, and barred the parade from making a stop in front of the
county government’s offices.
According to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the organizer of a public
assembly or parade must apply for both a permit to use public spaces from the
local government and a permit for holding an assembly or a parade from the local
police authority.
“The [Miaoli] city government turned down our application to hold a rally from
6pm to 9:30pm, saying that we may disturb official business, yet, the police
authority is restricting our event to 2pm to 5pm, which are office hours,
effectively blocking our evening rally,” the Youth Alliance for Miaoli, one of
the organizers of the event, said on its Facebook event page.
“Apparently, so-called ‘disturbing of official business’ is merely an excuse,”
it added.
The group also panned Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻), saying he
was violating people’s basic right to assembly, and vowed to proceed with the
rally on Friday regardless of any possible consequences.
“We will go on with our rally that evening [Friday] and we will set up our stage
right next to police barricades and their human wall,” the group said.
A member of the group, Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), who lives near the county hall, said
that he has seen different political and non-political rallies, concerts and
even Christmas events being held in front of the building, which is why he is
not convinced by the reasons that the county and city governments gave for
turning down the assembly application.
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