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Demolition team met by tears, jeers

Despite shouting, cursing, tears and physical clashes, the Taipei County Government demolished 11 homes in the Sanying Aboriginal Community (三鶯部落) yesterday and vowed to remove the rest by the end of the month.

"Where am I going to sleep tonight? Where am I going to sleep tonight?" the elderly Pan Chin-hua (潘金花) shouted as she burst into tears and sat on a stool in front of her house made of old wooden boards and canvas, like most of the other homes in the community.

She was quickly and forcefully removed by police officers before a hydraulic shovel moved in and demolished her house in five minutes. Similar scenes occurred during the two-hour demolition.

"We are here to enforce the policy of demolishing buildings built without permits in a flood area," a county Water Resources Bureau official surnamed Chang (張) told reporters.

The Sanying Community, located on the east bank of Dahan River (大漢溪) close to the Sanying Bridge that connects Sansia (三峽) and Yingge (鶯歌) townships, consisted of an estimated 30 households, mostly Amis Aborigines.

Amis men, who moved to Taipei to work as coalminers and construction workers and could not afford housing, began building their own houses on the site in around 1980, community chief Lien Ta-ching (連大經) said.

The Taipei County Government conducted a census of the community in 2002, then built apartments nearby and asked the Sanying residents to move there, Yang Cheng-pin (楊正斌), chief secretary of county's Indigenous Peoples Bureau, said by telephone.

Some residents have moved, but many have not, including those who did not qualify for the relocation project because they were not living in the community at the time of the census, or who cannot pay the rent.

On Feb. 14, the county government posted a notice telling residents they had three days to move. On Monday, 15 vacant homes were demolished and the remaining residents were asked to sign an agreement promising to tear down their houses and leave by the end of the month.

"All houses with occupants who refused to sign the agreement will be torn down today, while for those who signed the agreement, nothing will happen until the end of the month," Chang said.
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