Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) began a hunger strike yesterday afternoon in support of the release of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who has been in prison since 2008 and suffers from multiple mental and physical disorders.
Accompanied by Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), his sisters, Chen Hsiu-ching (陳秀金) and Chen Hsiu-chin (陳秀琴), as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and former minister of national defense Tsai Ming-shian (蔡明憲), Lu officially declared in front of the National Taiwan Museum that she would remain on a hunger strike until the government decides to release Chen Shui-bian.
Speaking at a news conference before retreating into a tent for the hunger strike, Lu accused the government of political interference in the judicial process and criticized what she called Chen Shui-bian’s inhumane treatment in prison and the rejection of his medical parole, which she said has contributed to the worsening of his mental and physical health to the degree that it is threatening his life.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
“It’s because of these reasons that I am beginning a hunger strike,” she said.
Lu said the move was not only in support of Chen Shui-bian’s human rights, but also a gesture of her appreciation for Chen Shui-bian’s choice to make her vice president in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
“Chen Shui-bian’s imprisonment has been a major cause of political polarization and releasing him could be a first step toward reconciliation and a brighter future for Taiwan,” Lu said, in tears as she spoke.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Chen Hsiu-chin said that as Lu is already in her 60s, “it is worrisome that she insists on going on a hunger strike in such cold weather.”
“I hereby call on [President] Ma [Ying-jeou, 馬英九] to let go of the hate that he harbors and let Chen Shui-bian go home,” she said.
Tsai also voiced concerns over Chen Shui-bian’s well-being, saying that the former president has said to him that if he dies in prison, “he would like to have his coffin paraded down Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building, before being taken to his home in Greater Tainan.”
Speaking on behalf of the DPP, Wu said: “Enough is enough,” calling on the government to release Chen Shui-bian immediately.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS