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Lu urges Kaohsiung City to stand up for its rights

Vice President Annette Lu tells reporters yesterday that she is visiting Kaohsiung to apologize to local residents on behalf of the government for the scandal surrounding the city's MRT construction project. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called for the establishment of a citizen's alliance to oversee the construction of the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, as she considers the construction problematic and an encroachment upon the human rights of the people of Kaohsiung.

The MRT and the various scandals surrounding the project have been a focus of media attention ever since the riot by Thai laborers over their slave-like living conditions. The project is now under judicial investigation for alleged corruption involving several officials.

Lu made the remarks while inspecting the MRT construction site after the ground next to the No.1 station collapsed and caused parts of three residential buildings to tilt and subside by up to 2m on Dec.6, the fourth accident since May.

Lu offered her apologies for the accident while appealing to the people of Kaohsiung to stand up and help out in supervising the construction work.

She announced late yesterday while chairing a meeting of the presidential office's advisory committee on human rights that the alliance will be composed of 15 experts -- nine from technical associations and six from academic institutes.

"There will be three missions for the alliance -- to examine incidents and prevent them from happening again, to make suggestions for the MRT construction process, and to analyze whether the construction will negatively influence underground hydrology," she said.

Lu remarked that the MRT construction was another "Kaohsiung Incident," comparing the importance of the project to a major incident in the history of Taiwan's democratic transition.

The original Kaohsiung Incident, which took place on Dec. 10, 1979, was a demonstration organized by opposition politicians and Formosa magazine to commemorate Human Rights Day which eventually turned into a bloody riot and led to the arrest of a group of then political dissidents.

"While the Kaohsiung Incident galvanized the Taiwanese people into political action and forced them to fight for their political and human rights, I hope the problematic MRT construction can encourage residents to defend their daily human rights," Lu said.

"The MRT construction has caused panic for the residents of Kaohsiung who are supposed to lead a life free from terror. I feel sorry about this, and I hope the people can join the citizen's alliance to help oversee the government in the process of the building of the MRT," she said.
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