Amis Aborigines from the Kanjin (崁津) and Saowac communities in Taoyuan County that are facing demolition rallied outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, calling on the central government to intervene.
The two communities are located on the banks of the Dahan River (大漢溪) in Dasi Township (大溪), Taoyuan County. The Kanjin Community got its name from the nearby Kanjin Bridge (崁津大橋), while Saowac is the Amis word for “riverside,” said Chang Chin-tsai (張進財), a preacher at the Saowac Church.
“Saowac has been there for 28 years,” Chang said. “The residents are Amis from Hualien and Taitung counties who migrated to Taipei and Taoyuan to find work, but could not afford housing.”
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
He said that the community has about 40 residents.
The 80 residents at the Kanjin Community share a similar background.
“I came here more than 20 years ago from Chengkung Township [成?Taitung County, because I could not find a job in my hometown,” said Azun Balis, a Kanjin resident. “After I got here, I found a construction job.”
In her sixties now, Azun still works part-time jobs on construction sites.
“With this recession, jobs are hard to find and if they tear down my house, I really don’t know how I can carry on living,” she said.
The demolition notices, issued by the Taoyuan County Government, came in May for Kanjin and December for Saowac, to make way for a riverside park and bike path. The county government said in the notice that the plan would also protect the Aborigines from the threat of flooding.
But Kanjin and Saowac residents resisted the eviction order, saying that in the decades they have lived there the areas have never flooded.
“No to forced eviction! We want to stay where we are!” nearly 100 residents from the two Taoyuan communities and their supporters shouted as they demonstrated.
Fifty of the demonstrators shaved their heads.
“They shaved their heads to show their determination to save their homes because they don’t want to see bloodshed, but if the government doesn’t respond to them, we Aborigines will certainly take more extreme action,” said Panay Luni, an Amis who came from Taitung to support her people.
“Most of these people are in their fifties and sixties. They have nowhere else to go. Why can’t they just be left alone?” Panay said.
Council of Indigenous Peoples Vice Minister Wang Chin-fa (王進發), who came out to meet the demonstrators, only promised he would help negotiate with the Taoyuan County Government.
“It would be a little hard to allow you to stay where you are since it’s illegal to live in a flood zone and all public servants must abide by the law. I’ll talk with the county government to see if we can come up with a better resolution,” Wang said, before being booed and interrupted by upset demonstrators, after which he hurriedly left.
“Our muddle-headed government only cares about achievements that people can see, they don’t care about people’s lives,” said Lin Chih-chiang (林志強), a Dasi Township councilor of Amis origin. “Politicians always say that they care about Aborigines and stand with us, but when they’re elected and we’re in trouble, they are nowhere to be found.”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS