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Protests orderly amid massive police presence

Thanks to the restraint exercised by protesters and the efforts of more than 3,000 police officers, rallies staged by both the pan-green and pan-blue camps yesterday ended peacefully.

Both the governing and opposition parties called supporters to rally outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning as votes were being cast in the legislative chamber on a motion to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

To prevent clashes between crowds from the two camps, police erected barb wire and barricades to keep them apart.

The two protest areas were separated by a 15 minute walk, and police had also been deployed to prevent supporters from each side approaching the other.

In addition, police were also deployed to the Shandao Temple MRT Station, the MRT station closest to the legislature, to prevent clashes between each camp's supporters after they left their designated protest areas.

Vice chief of Zhongzheng First Police District Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), who was responsible for handling security for the protests told the Taipei Times that he estimated "around 6,000 to 7,000 people had joined the pro-government rally, with around 1,000 in the pan-blue area."

A few minor incidents took place despite the tight security.

A cameraman from CTI news station was hit by a water battle as a couple of pan-blue supporters threw the bottles into a clearance area between the two sides.

An elderly male pan-blue supporter was quickly besieged by pan-green supporters when he mistakenly entered the pan-green protest area. He was expeditiously removed from the area by police.

In addition, because of the hot weather a number of protesters fainted from heat-stroke. Police swiftly sent them to hospital.
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