We will hold more rallies: pan-blues

The pan-blue alliance yesterday said that it will hold another rally at CKS Memorial Hall tomorrow. The rally could attract as many as 50,000 people, the event's organizers said.

The rally is intended to "show the people's will," since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) disagreed with the pan-blues request to establish special laws regarding the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) together with KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), director of the People First Party's (PFP) Center for Policy Research, held a news conference yesterday morning announcing the rally.

The conference came after Lin got a phone call from Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) on Wednesday night. Chiou told Lin that the DPP did not believe it was necessary to make special laws to establish independent task forces to investigate the assassination attempt on Chen and "the issues relating to the activation of the national security mechanism" after the president was shot.

Chiou said that the Cabinet, after consultation with the Ministry of Justice, decided it would violate the Constitution for the Legislative Yuan to make special laws in order to establish the task forces, according to Lin.

Lin said that Chiou's reply was a clear rejection of the alliance's appeals and proved that Chen was not sincere about resolving the controversy.

"If these substantial problems are not settled, it is meaningless for Lien and Soong to meet Chen," Lin said. Lin and PFP Secretary-General Tsai Chung-hsiung (蔡鐘雄) met with Chiou on Monday to hammer out an agenda for a meeting between Chen, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).

But the three did not reach any consensus on the meeting.

"I urge Chen not to underestimate people's will. If Chen and the DPP fail to react to our appeals with positive answers, the people's protests will never end, not even after April 10," Lin said.

The alliance originally decided to launch another demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard on April 10, but it changed its plan on Wednesday night, deciding that the rally will be held on Saturday at CKS Memorial Hall.

The pan-blue camp said it will not rule out holding another demonstration on April 10.

But Taipei City Police Headquarters' Chungcheng First Precinct yesterday turned down the pan-blues' request to hold rallies on Ketagalan Boulevard and at 228 Peace Park every weekend during April and May.

KMT spokesman Alex Tsai said the pan-blues will keep working on the applications and will communicate with the Taipei City Government, which has the right to approve their applications.

As the rally at CKS Memorial Hall on Saturday has to end before 12pm, Taipei City Government Spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said the Taipei police will help the CKS Memorial Hall police persuade people to leave, rather than dispersing them when the time is up.

When asked about rumors that KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) will switch parties and join the pan-green camp, Lin stressed that Lien and Soong will fully support Wang and no one can divide the pan-blue camp.

Wang said yesterday that he will remain loyal to the pan-blue camp, and he believed that all KMT and PFP lawmakers share his beliefs.