Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors and protesters yesterday clashed with police at a rally in Taipei against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), leaving dozens of protesters and police officers injured.
The protest, led by DPP Greater Tainan Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) and DPP Taipei City Councilor Tung Chung-yen (童仲彥), was held on Ketagalan Boulevard near the Presidential Office, five days after a 13-day sit-in ended violently on Saturday.
“We only intended to make a peaceful appeal, which does not require any prior application, as it is not deemed an assembly or parade, and we had a protest letter for Ma. However, we were forcefully evicted by police,” said Wang, who suffered an arm injury and accused police of assault.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Wang said he would press charges with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office today.
Accompanied by injured officers, Wu Ching-chung (吳進忠), deputy director of Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct, held a press conference shortly after the incident and accused Tung and other protesters of assaulting police.
“Three male and nine female officers were injured during the eviction and the police department will collect evidence related to the attacks and handle the matter in accordance with the law,” Wu said as two officers showed wounds on their arms.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The police began taking protesters away from the scene after they had explained to the protesters that their assembly was unauthorized, Wu said, adding that some pushing and shoving had occurred in the process.
Countering the accusations, Tung said that the police launched a “sneak attack” and that he was injured on one side of his abdomen and suffered bruising on both arms.
Holding a press conference to showcase the wounds sustained by police officers was merely staging a show, Tung said.
An unidentified woman, who was also injured in the protest, said she was shoved to the ground and trampled by police.
She said her lip was split in the melee.
Earlier yesterday, several pastors from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan held a press conference on Ketagalan Boulevard to lodge three appeals to Ma, calling for a two-year freeze on fuel and electricity prices, maintaining a ban on any meat products containing ractopamine residue and amending the Referendum Act (公投法) to allow contentious livelihood issues to be dealt with via referendum.
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan General Assembly moderator Pusin Tali (布興大立), who presided over the press conference, said Ma had flip-flopped on his electricity rate-hike policy, which was initially to be a one-time increase, but was subsequently revised to a three-stage process.
“Following the Jan. 14 presidential election, the root source of Taiwan’s social disturbances and public panic has been Ma himself,” he said, adding that a national leader who only brings more suffering to the people does not deserve to be one.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique