Aboriginal representatives yesterday made a plea at a public hearing to demand the return of lands appropriated by the government in the Hualien County area.
Forty Amiss tribal chiefs and elders took part in the public hearing to press their claim to 622 hectares that is currently owned by the Taiwan Sugar Corp.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The public hearing, entitled "Return-My-Land," was sponsored by legislator Payen Talu (
Representatives from Taiwan Sugar, the Council of Aboriginal Affairs, the Legislative Yuan's bureau of legal affairs and the Association of Taiwan Indigenous People's Politics (ATIPP) were also represented at the meeting.
The 622-hectare area has undergone extensive development since it was appropriated and hosts three ethnic-Chinese villages: Da-hsing, His-fu and Fu-yuan.
Historical precedent
"The land historically has belonged to us," said Aaung Nouw Ay Jiyeuss, an Amiss spokesperson. "The Taiwan Sugar Corp received the land from the outside forces who came and took away our land without seeking our consent."
Jiyeuss was referring to the Japanese colonial period from 1895 to 1945 during which tribal peoples were forced to live in mountainous areas.
The colonial government appropriated thousands of hectares of tribal land in order to exploit forest, mineral and agricultural resources.
"When the KMT came to Taiwan in 1949, it received the lands from the Japanese and continued the occupation and exploitation of them by claiming them as government property," said Aaung Nouw Ay Jiyeuss.
Amiss elders present said that as a result, tribal peoples were forced to abandon their land and to live in mountainous areas.
Huang Jorn-hun (黃哲宏), vice president of Taiwan Sugar Corp, said that "the company is willing to negotiate over the matter, though the fact remains that it did gain ownership of the land in accordance with the law."
However, the Amiss disagreed.
"We don't recognize Taiwan Sugar Corp's ownership of the land because the law has been created according to the values of the Han people which have neither incorporated nor acknowledged Aborigines," Aaung Nouw Ay Jiyeuss said.
A legal matter
Huang Nuan-fang (
"No matter what, in a legal fight, Taiwan Sugar Corp is regarded having full ownership of the land," Huang said.
Siao Shih-hui (
"Compiling sufficient background information concerning the land will be difficult," said Chang Chen-jorn (
Most Amiss tribal members live in the mountainous areas around Hualien. It is the largest, with 150,000 members, of the nine Aborigine tribes that still exist in Taiwan.
In total approximately 400,000, or 1.65 percent of Taiwan's 23 million people claim Aboriginal decent. Most Aborigines live in scatter settlements and small villages in the most remote areas of the country's east and southeast.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole