Carrying model coffins and singing the Tibetan national anthem, dozens of Tibetans and Taiwanese supporters of Tibetan independence yesterday marched along Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei and submitted a petition urging President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to pay more attention to the state of human rights in Tibet.
The activists, who carried the cardboard coffins to symbolize the 28 self-immolations by Tibetans since March last year amid a renewed clampdown by Chinese authorities, condemned the Chinese government for its continuous repression of Tibet and reminded Ma of his previous promise to take an interest in human rights issues in the region.
“President Ma voiced his support for Tibet’s struggle for freedom when running for president in 2008. However, since then, he has not openly shown his support. Taiwan’s closer economic ties with China should not prevent our government from taking a strong stance on human rights in Tibet,” Taiwan Friends of Tibet deputy director Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮) said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Amnesty International Taiwan board member Tashi Tsering, an Indian-born Tibetan-Taiwanese, said Tibetans had been fighting for religious freedom and their human rights in a peaceful way and that people were setting themselves on fire because the situation in the region had become unbearable.
“We need to defend our right to religious freedom and ask for the return of [Tibetan spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama,” he said.
“The fight for freedom and human rights in Tibet is not only for Tibetans ... the international community should join us in asking for change in China,” he said.
Police and security guards carefully monitored the group as it later marched from the Taipei Guest House to the Presidential Office to hand over a petition to Ma, calling on him to pay attention to human rights.
A staff member from the Presidential Office’s public relations division received the petition and promised to relay the group’s concerns to Ma.
Ma, who had expressed sympathy for Tibet’s independence movement during the 2008 presidential campaign, rejected a proposal later that year, after he had been elected, for the Dalai Lama to visit the country.
Yang Cheng-shin (楊正欣), a member of Taiwan Students for a Free Tibet, said the group hoped that the president would openly voice his concerns about China’s human rights situation and hold regular meetings with civic groups and human rights advocates to monitor the state of human rights in Tibet.
The group also invited the public to join a rally today in commemoration of the 52nd anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. The rally is scheduled to begin at 2pm in front of Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS