Several activists staged a “Rather Nude than Nuke” rally on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office yesterday to coincide with the 25th -anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster today.
The protesters urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to implement a national energy policy and to take proactive action to prevent nuclear disasters.
The protest, led by former -Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳), started with the activists singing the rally’s theme song.
It was followed by a performance by the music band Strawberry, who wore nuclear protective gear to highlight the fact that only government officials would have protective clothing to wear in case of a nuclear catastrophe.
Singer Lee Mi (李宓) represented the general public by crying for help.
Lee then stripped down to flesh-colored underwear. Soon afterwards, female police officers standing by covered Lee with a large cloth.
Taipei City’s Zhongzheng First Police District said the organizer failed to follow Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) regulations by filing an application in advance, adding that police had issued warnings twice during the rally.
Activists could be fined up to NT$30,000 and Lee may also have violated the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), police said.
Lee said she did not break any law because she simply protested through a performance of body art.
Also yesterday, representatives from 21 university student clubs from across the nation gathered in front of the Executive Yuan to demand a non-nuclear environmental policy based on clean energy.
The students offered a short satirical performance about a possible future if the government failed to change its nuclear policy.
In the fictitious scenario, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) promised the public that nuclear power was safe, but after several years households had to put on radiation protection suits and keep nuclear waste at home.
Radiation leakage at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, damaged in a devastating earthquake and tsunami last month, has raised anxieties about the possible threat of nuclear radiation in Taiwan.
Hsieh Shuo-yuan (謝碩元), a student at National Taiwan University, said the group urged the government to reflect on its current energy policy and to consider other possibilities, such as shifting to a more power-saving industrial structure.
“We want to take generational justice into our hands,” he said, amid shouts of: “Care for the industrial structure. I want a sustainable future. Re-evaluate energy policy now. Nuclear power is not the only option.”
Young people are the future of society, said Seaman Wong (王俊朗), a student from Hong Kong studying at National Taiwan University. If they don’t care about nuclear power issues in Taiwan now, then the future civil society of Taiwan is at risk.
“When facing these problems, people in Hong Kong have no choice but to accept them, but that now that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is being built in Taiwan, Taiwanese should stand up and decide their own destiny,” Wong said. “Taiwanese have more freedom and power to voice their opinions on nuclear policies than people across the Taiwan Strait.”
An official from the Executive Yuan came out to accept the students’ statement and said she would hand over the statement to the departments in charge of this issue.
A series of anti-nuclear public forums will take place in several universities beginning tonight, featuring a documentary and lectures by academics and environmental protection NGOs.
The students said they also planned to take part in a nationwide anti-nuclear protest on Saturday.
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