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Aborigines march, saying they hold the election's key

Aboriginal leaders claimed yesterday to hold the key to the presidential election, demanding that both political camps act to prevent their way of life from being wiped out.

Community leaders led a march yesterday to protest decades of what they said were human rights abuses and claimed that successive governments had ignored their appeals to preserve their language and identity.

They claimed that Aborigines represented 5 percent of the country's 23 million people and could swing the vote on March 20, with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) running neck and neck.

"We may be a minority but we believe our votes will play a crucial role in this tight election," said protest organizer Pan Jae-yang, without expressing support for either camp.

Pan said, "Neither the KMT nor the DPP government has offered any help in preserving our culture and heritage. This is practically genocide of our race as we watch our language and culture being slowly wiped out."

Several hundred protesters marched from Chen's campaign headquarters to Lien's and delivered petitions to both camps demanding improved rights for Aborigines.

Aborigines receive some government money to help preserve their culture but Aboriginal leaders say that another 800,000 people living outside the nation's mountainous regions suffer from not being officially recognized by the government.

"We are truly the masters of Taiwan, but our rights and benefits are ignored by the Chen government," said independent Legislator May Chin (金素梅), a member of the second-largest Aboriginal group.

She said that Chen had gone back on promises made to the Aboriginal people four years ago.

"He pledged to grant us greater autonomy in our tribal settlements and more resources, but nothing substantial has been done to improve our people's lives," she said.
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