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Freedom House calls for investigation

The US-based Freedom House on Thursday called on the Taiwanese government to set up an independent commission to investigate the clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) earlier this month.

Chen, chairman of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, visited the country from Nov. 3 to Nov. 7 to sign four agreements with his Taiwanese counterpart, Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), aimed at strengthening cross-strait ties.

VIOLENCE

Concerned that the agreements would compromise Taiwan's sovereignty and angry about the increased security measures to protect Chen and his delegation, large crowds of demonstrators took to the streets several times during Chen's stay. Several of the demonstrations ended in violent clashes.

“During Chen's visit, police reportedly used heavy-handed tactics — including physical assault, arbitrary detention and destruction of property — to prevent Chen from seeing symbols of Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, as well as broader demonstrations against the Chinese regime,” Freedom House said in a statement. “Demonstrators also employed violence against police, throwing rocks and petrol bombs outside Chen's hotel on Nov. 6.”

“A public investigation of the violence — which involved both sides — will send a critical message that the new government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is interested in upholding the democratic values of transparency and accountability,” Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor said in the statement. “The inquiry should examine evidence on both sides and recommend any needed reforms to police practices and the legal framework governing demonstrations.”

The human rights watchdog echoed the rising calls from civic groups and college students staging a sit-in demonstration in several cities across the country to revise the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), saying the commission “should examine controversial passages in [the] law, such as restrictions on where people are allowed to demonstrate, and determine whether they need to be liberalized to protect citizens' rights to freedom of expression and assembly” and “investigate claims that police are selectively enforcing the law.”

POLICE TRAINING

It also suggested that to prevent similar violent clashes, the police should “undergo crowd control training that adheres to the standards used in other democracies” and that the government should renew its commitment to tolerate freedom of assembly and peaceful protests.

When asked to comment, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that creating an independent investigation commission would violate the Constitution's definition of the system of government.

“Of course the police can be examined, but according to the Constitution, it should be done by the Control Yuan,” Wang told the Taipei Times via telephone. “We don't need and are not supposed to create an independent investigation mechanism outside the regular governmental system.”
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