Displaying pictures of decaying nuclear waste barrels and a girl with a brain tumor, Tao Aborigines from Lanyu (蘭嶼, also known as Orchid Island) yesterday accused the government and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) of trying to annihilate the tribe by storing nuclear waste on the island for three decades.
“I cry everytime I tell the story of this five-year-old girl because I’m also a mother, and I believe every mother would feel heartbroken when she sees this picture and hears the story,” Sinan Mavivo, an anti-nuclear activist and resident of Lanyu, told a news conference in Taipei, while showing a picture of a five-year-old girl whose head was wrapped in gauze.
“When I first saw her, I thought she was wearing a mask, but no, it was gauze. She has to wear it because she has to undergo several treatments for brain tumor, and since she’s so little, the procedure has to be done through her mouth,” Sinan Mavivo said.
Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP
She choked back sobs as she talked, while Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) wiped away tears from their faces when they saw the picture.
Sinan Mavivo said that although there is no research establishing a firm connection between cancer and nuclear waste, official figures show that the cancer rate on the island has risen since the nuclear waste facility was opened in 1982.
She showed another picture in which workers were shown working in a trench where nuclear waste barrels are stored in the Lanyu Nuclear Waste Storage site. Most of the barrels have deteriorated, and dust-like nuclear waste was scattered around the trench.
“This is what it looks like in the trench, and the radioactive dust scatters whenever they open the cover over the trench to inspect the barrels, contaminating the land and sea,” Sinan Mavivo said.
After seeing the pictures, Tien said she recently visited the nuclear waste storage facility at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Wanli District (萬里), which she said was “fully air-conditioned with temperature and humidity control.”
“Why is the nuclear waste dump in Lanyu so primitive?” Tien asked.
“It’s not fair that we who live on Taiwan proper enjoy the electricity produced by these nuclear power plants, but it’s the people on Lanyu who have to take the waste,” she said.
Tien said she would ask Taipower to make funding available to remove the nuclear waste from the island, and push a special law to compensate Lanyu residents for what they have endured.
Lin supported the idea and accused Taipower of illegally storing nuclear waste on the island, since the lease for the plot of land where the facility is located expired at the end of last year.
Chang Hai-yu (張海嶼), a pastor at a local church, said that since the company had completed an inspection of all nuclear waste barrels last year, “Taipower should remove them from the island, and send them back to where they came from.”
“I hope President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) hears our cry, otherwise, the Tao are heading for destruction,” said Kuo Chien-ping (郭建平), a long-time Tao activist against nuclear waste.
“I’m sure he will hear us, because he always learns about current events from newspapers, and if newspapers publish what we say here, he will read about it tomorrow,” he said.
The Tao, as well as anti-nuclear activists, will stage a rally against nuclear power on Saturday next week in Taipei.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS