Cabinet vows to return ancestral land

After thousands of Ami Aborigines in Hualien County staged a protest to request the return of their ancestral land on Monday, the Cabinet "agreed in principle" to return the land as soon as possible.

"Endorsing President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) campaign promise and recognizing Aborigines' right to reclaim their traditional territory, the Executive Yuan agreed in principle to return the land of Aborigines to their tribes as soon as possible," said a statement issued by the Cabinet's Council of Aboriginal Affairs yesterday.

Chen signed an agreement, entitled "New Partnership between Aborigines and Taiwan Government" with indigenous people in 1999 when he was running for the presidency. In the agreement, he pledged to promote an autonomous region for Aborigines as well as other rights, such as resource use and land ownership.

According to Lin Hsien-feng (林賢豐), a specialist on the Aboriginal Affairs Council who negotiated with the Ami people on behalf of the council on Monday, the council plans to return the land to the tribe instead of allocating it to individuals.

"We're thinking of providing money and other necessary assistance to let the entire tribe jointly manage the land instead of allowing individuals to own the land," Lin said.

On Monday, thousands of the Ami Aboriginal tribe residing in Shoufeng Township, Hualien County, staged a protest in their village as part of their drive to call for the return of their ancestral land.

They threatened to "adopt an extreme measure used by their ancestors" to get back their land if the government fails to respond to their request as soon as possible.

Holding a microphone in his hand, the 70-year-old Aday (阿迭) told his people how the land owned by their ancestors had been taken away by various people.

"In earlier days, our ancestors farmed on this land but it was later occupied by the Japanese. After World War II, it was taken over by the KMT, who allocated parcels of the land to veteran soldiers to farm," Aday said. "Now, we're not asking too much. We just want our land back."

After the KMT withdrew to Taiwan in 1949, they took over lands that indigenous people had farmed for centuries, at the time offering them back some parts of the land.

Regulations were later established, stipulating that Aborigines could regain control of lands they had previously farmed for at least 10 years.

During that time, indigenous farmers' lands were owned by the government and administered by local village administrations (鄉公所).

In the case of the Ami Aboriginal tribe in Hualien, the land belongs to the Cabinet's Veterans Affairs Commission, which has shied away from responding to the calls of the Ami people.

In addition to agreeing to return the land to Aborigines, the Aboriginal Affairs Council also plans to conduct a survey of the lands originally cultivated by the Aborigines.

The survey will serve as a reference for the future return of the land to the tribe or individuals, the statement said.

To help solve Aborigines' land problems in the future, the council is also studying the possibility of establishing a court specializing in solving land disputes, the statement said.