Supporters of the Losheng (Happy Life) Sanatorium yesterday clashed with police, who blocked their attempt to enter Taipei City Hall after city officials refused to meet them and accept a petition calling for a halt to the construction of an MRT maintenance depot.
On Thursday the activists marched for 17km from the sanatorium to city hall and camped outside overnight to press their demands.
“Step out to take the responsibility, [Taipei Mayor] Hau Lung-bin” (郝龍斌), the angry crowd shouted as they pushed forward, trying to go into the city hall, but were pushed back by police officers holding shields.
Photo: CNA
“You have violated the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法). Please back down and leave,” the police said through a loudspeaker.
No one listened, and the pushing and shoving continued, until police began dragging and arresting some of the demonstrators.
Other protesters reacted by trying to pull their companions back and yelling at the officers.
Photo: CNA
The conflict broke out just after 9am when about 100 protesters — mobilized by the Youth Alliance for Losheng and the Losheng Self-Help Organization — said they wanted to deliver a petition asking the city government to suspend the construction of an MRT maintenance depot on the site where the sanatorium is located in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
They said the construction has caused another landslide at the site recently.
City officials declined to come out and meet them.
“[The city government] has forcibly evicted Losheng residents and sacrificed the interests of the socially disadvantaged [for the MRT construction],” alliance member Lin Hsiu-peng (林秀芃) said.
“It neither cares for the lives of these people, nor the sanatorium, which is an important cultural asset,” Lin said.
With no official response forthcoming, the alliance vowed to take further action.
“As the city government has disturbed the lives of Losheng residents, we will also try to disrupt the MRT system,” Lin said.
“We would like to apologize to passengers who may be effected by our actions, but I hope that, rather than complaining, you would take some time to learn about this serious problem that has been around for 10 years,” Lin said.
Completed in the 1930s, the sanatorium was home to thousands of people with Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy, who were kept there by force, first by the Japanese colonial government and then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, as the disease was thought to be highly contagious and incurable.
More than a decade ago, the government said that the sanatorium would be razed to make way for an MRT maintenance depot, triggering an opposition campaign that has compelled the government to agree to preserve a portion of the site.
However, as preservationists have long said, the construction has led to several landslides, causing several construction suspensions.
Recently, landslides have recurred, damaging some of the remaining buildings and leading the city’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems to ask the remaining residents to evacuate.
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