High-school student protesters and civic groups yesterday rallied outside the Ministry of Education building in Taipei, demanding the release of students arrested in the early hours of the morning after breaking into the complex.
“We demand that our comrades be immediately released and not be subjected to violent judicial hunting,” Taoyuan High School Alliance spokesperson Liao Hao-hsiang (廖浩翔) said.
“If the ministry does not give us a reasonable and positive response today, we will continue our protest, refusing to bend in spite of last night’s [Friday morning’s] violent expulsion,” he said.
Photo: CNA
He repeated demands that proposed adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines be removed and that new regulations covering adjustments be introduced to prevent a repetition of the controversy.
The curriculum guidelines have sparked protests over what critics call a “China-centric” focus and an opaque “black box” approval process.
Hsinchu and Miaoli Anti-Curriculum Guidelines Working Group convener Mu Yu-feng (慕宇峰) said the ministry’s stance had “compelled” students to take more extreme measures.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
“We have already tried numerous peaceful protests and the government has lost a lawsuit, but it has remained totally unmoved,” Mu said.
The ministry is appealing a ruling by the Taipei High Administrative Court ordering it to release a complete list of the curriculum review committee members, along with meeting minutes and voting results.
Northern Taiwan Anti-Curriculum Changes Alliance spokesperson Wang Pin-chen (王品蓁) said the ministry had refused to allow public meetings between activists and Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) or his deputies.
“On this matter, we have been like a mute person eating canker root — there is no choice but to suffer in silence,” Wang said.
At a forum on Thursday night, K-12 Education Administration Director Wu Ching-shan (吳清山) did not take the students seriously, instead repeating ministry talking points like a “skipping needle,” she said.
She said students decided at an impromptu meeting to break into the ministry compound after they stormed out of the forum, denying that there was any involvement by external political forces.
More than 20 students scaled barricades late on Thursday night, forcing open two side doors and locking themselves in the minister’s second-floor office.
Other than a side door found off its hinges, it was unclear whether there had been any damage, with students claiming that they had not damaged anything in the offices.
While the ministry said in a press release that students had damaged a reception desk and broken down the minister’s office door, officials blocked reporters from accessing the ministry’s second floor yesterday morning, claiming that damage to the site had already been restored to allow the ministry to conduct normal operations.
A video recorded by a student and posted online showed an impromptu barricade of chairs and potted plants against an office door, but there were no visible signs of damage.
Before the person behind the camera was subdued, police were shown dragging protesters across the office floor, with a line of others yelling slogans as they sat at the back of the room.
The ministry said 33 people had been arrested: 24 students, three reporters and six non-student protesters.
Eleven minors were among those arrested, it said.
Following news of the students’ arrests, more than 100 people gathered outside the ministry complex early yesterday morning to demand their release. They were later dispersed by police.
Wang said that all but one of the students were handcuffed and refused access to their mobile phones, making it impossible for their parents to contact them.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights legal specialist Hsu Jen-shuo (許仁碩) said the handcuffing of students was “disproportionate” and a breach of the Police Power Exercise Act (警察職權行使法), which allows handcuffing only if someone attempts to escape or resists arrest.
Because the students were only sitting in protest before they were arrested, the police had no right to handcuff them and indirectly deprive them of their ability to contact a lawyer or their parents, Hsu said.
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
OVERWHELMING SUPPORT: The bill with US$2 billion in Foreign Military Financing Program funds and US$1.9 billion to replenish defense articles passed the House 385-34 Taiwan is to continue working with the US to ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday after the US House of Representatives approved a US$95 billion foreign aid package with funding for Taiwan. The bills were passed with bipartisan support in a rare Saturday session after votes had been delayed for months by House Republicans. After clearing the House, the bills — containing US$8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region, along with US$60.8 billion for Kyiv, and US$26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones — would be combined into a
The navy next month is expected to commission into service two more domestically built Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes, a source said yesterday. The Hsu Chiang (旭江, PGG-621) and the Wu Chiang (武江, PGG-623) would be officially commissioned in a ceremony early next month, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The corvettes, launched in February and June last year respectively, were delivered to the navy in February. They are the third and fourth Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes to be produced. The Tuo Chiang-class corvette is a domestically designed and manufactured class of fast and stealthy multipurpose corvette built for the