Aboriginal campaigners from Orchid Island (
The group of 20 Tao campaigners -- referred to as Yami by both the KMT and scholars in the past -- included elders from the tribe dressed in traditional outfits. They pledged to form an alliance with eight other ethnic groups in order to press the new government to give priority to Aboriginal autonomy.
"The new government should propose a timetable for autonomy on the basis of partnership and give Orchid Island its autonomy by 2004," said Tao representative Syaman Rapongan (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Last September, Chen signed a bilateral agreement, or "new partnership" document, with 11 representatives from Aboriginal ethnic groups.
In the agreement, Chen recognized many privileges and rights that the Aborigines would like to implement, such as local autonomy and native ownership of land.
The 45-square-kilometer Orchid Island is located to the southeast of Taiwan and has a population of about 3,000 indigenous Tao residents. Due to its isolation and unique culture, Orchid Island has been widely considered an ideal place to implement Aboriginal autonomy.
Campaigners petitioned the Executive Yuan yesterday and requested to meet Vice Premier Yu Shyi-kun. However, Yu was chairing a meeting and was unable to receive the petitioners.
The campaigners then compared the new government to that of the KMT. "We want to severely censure the new government. They are behaving just like the old government," said Taitung County Councilor Shyman Faagien (郭建平).
"We are facing cultural loss and ethnic extinction. Autonomy is the only way for us to survive," he said, emphasizing that autonomy was also in keeping with the cultural diversity in Taiwan.
A group of Aboriginal lawmakers headed by Walis Pelin (
"We hope it will function as an Aboriginal constitution, allowing the formation of an Aboriginal congress," he said.
The Tao want to be able to have their own education system, land ownership, administrative independence and have more control over the development of Orchid Island.
In addition to autonomy, the removal of nuclear waste stored on the island was another main concern of campaigners.
"The nuclear waste has been our nightmare for decades and has caused many strange diseases and mental problems for our people," a Tao senior said, speaking in his mother tongue.
According to campaigners, the leakage of nuclear waste from over 30,000 rusty barrels that are stored on the island is thought to be the main cause of both a high cancer death rate and the birth of over 50 physically handicapped children.
They charged that Taipower and the Atomic Energy Council had lied to them in order to establish a nuclear waste storage site there in 1980.
"They cheated us by saying they were going to build a can factory," said campaigners.
Since 1987, the Tao people have demonstrated against the stored nuclear waste.
In 1988 they blockaded the harbor and successfully stopped a nuclear waste shipment from being unloaded. This was their most successful anti-nuclear activity to date and surprised anti-nuclear activists all over the world.
The success, however, was short-lived. The next shipment of nuclear waste arrived as scheduled. Currently, there are around 96,000 barrels of nuclear waste stored on the island.
Earlier this year Taipower signed an extension contract with the township government of Orchid Island which will allow the waste to be stored on the island until 2002, with Taipower agreeing to pay compensation of NT$2.80 million to residents.
"But most locals were not told of the contract extension," said campaigner Syaman Inagnik (周貴光). He said the Ministry of Economic Affairs had not approved the contract nor the compensation yet. "It needs further discussion by the new government," he said.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS