Lepers appeal to local government

"Are we living in a rogue state in which the police can attack crippled, elderly and unarmed people?"

Lee Tien-pei, a member of the Lepers' Self-Help Organization

Accompanied by a group of activists, leprosy patients yesterday called on the Taipei County Government to drop its plan to demolish the Happy Life Leprosy Sanatorium.

The appeal came one day after leprosy patients and their supporters had scuffled with county police officers during a protest on Tuesday.

"Today they used physical violence against us. I believe one day they will forcefully dismantle our home," said Lee Tien-pei (李添培), 74, a member of the Lepers' Self-Help Organization.

Lee, together with 300 other patients, faces eviction from the sanatorium due to the Taipei County Government's plans to extend the MRT system to Sinjhuang.

The sanatorium, also known as Lo Sheng, is the only public hospital for leprosy patients in Taiwan.

Twenty protesters were detained by police for questioning on Tuesday. Police said they would refer Lee and Chang Hsin-wen (張馨文), the chief of Youth Leseng League, to the judicial court for violating the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法).

At a press conference held by Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛), lepers and activists accused the Taipei County Government of ignoring their appeals.

"It was a peaceful protest [on Tuesday]. We just wanted to present the UN's concerns to Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), and to let him know that the decision to demolish the sanatorium is a human rights violation," Lee said.

Supporters of Happy Life have called for the leprosarium to be recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO, together with similar facilities in Japan and Korea.

"Are we living in a rogue state in which the police can attack crippled, elderly and unarmed people?" Lee said. "Last year we won a lawsuit against the Japanese government for its inhuman treatment of leprosy patients. The Japanese government offered us compensation and an apology. But now look at how our own government has treated us."

Located in Sinjhuang Township (新莊) in Taipei County, the Happy Life leprosarium was built during the Japanese colonial era and has housed more than 300 lepers over the years, most of whom were forced to leave their families in their teens and are now in their 60s or 70s.

Patients in the leprosarium used to live a secluded life as a result of the segregation policy put in place by first the Japanese and then the Taiwanese government during the martial law period.

Lepers were denied the rights to move, marry or have offspring. Some of them were even forced into hard labor and to have sterilizations and abortions.

It was not until the 1950s that new medical treatments for the disease became available in Taiwan and leprosy was found to be a curable chronic illness with a low likelihood of transmission.

In 1994, the Taipei County government sold the land on which the sanatorium was built to the TRTC for the construction of part of the Sinjhuang MRT line. The lepers were not consulted, and did not learn of the sale until 2003, when the demolition of the sanatorium began.

Patients and human-rights groups have campaigned to save the leprosarium since 2004, petitioning official agencies such as the Taipei County Government, the Executive Yuan and the Council for Cultural Affairs.

Additional reporting by Flora Wang