The Wild Strawberry Student Movement held a mock “memorial service” yesterday for human rights at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.
Wearing white head coverings and face masks, a few dozen protesters gathered at Liberty Square, carrying placards that read “Freedom of speech” and “Free from violence” and offering their “condolences” to rights they said have been trampled by the government.
The memorial service “symbolizes our sadness toward [the government’s] violations of human rights during [Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman] Chen Yunlin’s [陳雲林] stay in Taiwan,” said Lo Shih-hsiang (羅士翔), a spokesman for the movement.
PHOTO: CNA
The students began their silent sit-in on Nov. 6 to protest what they called excessive police force against demonstrators who opposed Chen’s visit between Nov. 3 and Nov 7.
After police removed the students from outside the Executive Yuan, they moved their demonstration to the square on Nov. 7.
The group has continued its demonstrations at the square every day, calling for immediate amendments to the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) to scrap regulations requiring police approval for demonstrations.
The students had sent out “notices of death” of the nation’s human rights to politicians across party lines, including President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and to National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明). Only Tsai attended the mock funeral.
When approached by reporters, Tsai said she wanted to encourage the students, but that she did not want their demonstration to be labeled as an activity organized by the pan-green camp.
Speaking on the assembly law, Tsai said the former DPP administration “failed to pay enough attention or push for amending or abolishing the Assembly and Parade Law. We feel very sorry.”
The students also expressed opposition yesterday to a requirement by the Ministry of Justice that schools nationwide recruit personnel to implement government ethics policies.
The ministry sent formal notices to all government branches asking schools, government agencies and state-run enterprises to recruit the personnel.
The move drew widespread criticism across party lines, with many legislators calling the measure reminiscent of the Martial Law era, when all schools had human resource units in charge of spying on public servants and reporting back to the ministry.
The DPP caucus said the ministry’s requirement may violate the 1992 Act Governing the Establishment of the Government Employee Ethics Units and Officers (政風機構人員設置條例), which says the legislature, local councils, military agencies and public schools do not need to establish such units.
“The students of the Wild Strawberry Student Movement are worried that schools ... will be threatened by the White Terror again,” the students said in a press release.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
RSS