Sakiraya Aborigine Chang Mu-sheng (張木生) appeared in court yesterday facing charges of theft and illegal mining after trying to take home sand from a beach in Hualien County.
Chang, a 57-year-old resident of Jici Village (磯崎), Fengbin Township (豐濱), was arrested by the Coast Guard at the end of April for illegal gravel mining. He was trying to take about 600kg of sand from the beach in front of the Jici Inspection Station to repair a wall on his house.
Chang was sent to the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office, where he was indicted for illegal gravel mining and theft.
Denying he intended to break the law, Chang said he suspected the Coast Guard set him up.
“[Local residents] have long been taking whatever materials they can find to build or repair their houses. I’ve never heard of anyone getting arrested for taking sand from the beach,” Chang said.
“Coast Guard officers saw me shoveling the sand, but didn’t stop me — they waited until I was about to drive home to arrest me,” he said.
Chang said he told the officers he did not know it was illegal and asked if he could simply return the gravel, but was told that it was too late.
Jici Village chief Chen Yi-sheng (陳義盛) said Chang had not broken any laws because the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民族基本法) allows Aborigines in Aboriginal regions to mine small amounts of gravel for private use.
“The law says it’s legal as long as the total amount of gravel does not exceed 10m³ — or 2,000kg,” Chen said.
But commander of the 82nd Coast Patrol Corps Chi Ming-hua (池明華) — the supervisor at the Jici Inspection Station — was quoted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) as saying that although gravel mining for private use was allowed in the Sand and Gravel Excavation Act (土石採取法)Chang had failed to file an application prior to doing so.
The Sand and Gravel Excavation Act, however, says just the opposite.
While Article 3 of the law stipulates that gathering soil or stone requires prior approval, it says gathering small amounts for private use are exempted.
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