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Government repressing
rights movements: groups
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Protesters from various civic
groups perform a skit at a rally outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday,
accusing the government of using the judiciary to repress environmental and
civil rights movements.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Several civic groups yesterday
demonstrated outside the Executive Yuan, accusing the government of using the
judiciary as a tool to repress various rights movements and vowing that they
would not stop, regardless of the government’s actions.
Dozens of people representing Huaguang Community (華光社區) residents, the Taiwan
Rural Front (TRF), residents against wind turbines in Yuanli Township (苑裡),
Miaoli County, the Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal (TAVUR) and the
National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories yesterday rallied outside the
Executive Yuan in protest, as most of these organizations have had members
prosecuted for protesting.
“Since July 18, more than 21 people who have protested against forcible
demolitions of private homes in Dapu Borough (大埔), Miaoli County — TRF members
and non-members alike — have been arrested or prosecuted,” TRF member Chiang
Ping-lun (江昺崙) told the crowd, who stood in pouring rain. “Twenty-one people
have been handcuffed and taken away by police because they protested against the
injustice that happened to the residents of Dapu — something is wrong with our
government.”
While the government always insists that it is “acting according to the law”
when it tears down private homes or takes away private lands, Chiang said that
according to the law, the government has the authority to decide whether to
exclude homes or lands whose owners are opposed to the expropriation.
“Residents who are in their old age begged you, but you simply turned away from
them — you could have saved their lives without breaking any law,” Chiang said.
“According to the law, the government could help people resettle before taking
away their houses or lands,” TAVUR chairman Peng Lung-san (彭龍三) said. “It could
also just ignore the suffering of the people — the government is acting
according to the law in both situations, and I don’t know why it always has to
choose the latter.”
Cheng Chang Lai-yu (鄭張來于), a 78-year-old resident of Yuanli worried about the
impact of wind turbines being built near her home, became very emotional and
asked the government to have mercy.
“How do I lead a normal life in my own house when a wind turbine is so close to
my house? I am almost 80 years old now, all I hope for is to live peacefully in
my own house for the rest of my life,” Cheng Chang said. “How could the
government be so cruel to not respond to such a humble request from an old
woman?”
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