Peng Hsiu-chun (彭秀春), widow of Chang Sen-wen (張森文) who owned the Chang Pharmacy that was torn down in the Dapu Incident (大埔), yesterday expressed her determination to stay by her ruined home and fulfill her late husband’s wish of seeing their home rebuilt.
The Dapu Incident refers to the Miaoli County Government’s seizure of farmland in the county’s Jhunan Township (竹南) to expand the Hsinchu Science Park, when it blocked roads and sent excavators onto farms that were awaiting harvest and forcibly demolished four family houses in Dapu Borough (大埔) last year.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of Chang’s death. He was found dead in an irrigation channel near where his house used to stand, one month after the land was expropriated and torn down.
Photo: Cheng Hung-ta, Taipei Times
Although the evictions of the Changs and three other families were deemed unlawful by the court, the county government and the Ministry of the Interior has refused to return the land and rebuild the houses as the families requested.
“Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) had threatened us by saying: ‘There would be no road for even a scooter to pass through,’ and later forcibly demolished the building. They told us they were expropriating our land for the betterment of the people, but the rising buildings on the land expropriated for that exact reason stand witness to the great lie of the Miaoli County Government,” Peng said. “That the common people would be subjected to such despotic acts reveals problems with the nation. This is an example of the tyranny of government — an act that happened because we had no political background.”
Peng said she wanted to thank all the people who had stood by her family during the incident, adding that though she did not recognize many, they had given her the courage to carry on.
“We will stand by my husband’s wishes and see to it our home is rebuilt, right here on our own land,” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) accused the government of doing nothing to compensate the Changs.
“Returning the land and rebuilding the houses” is not a mercy from the government, rather, it is a responsibility that the government should take up for its policy mistakes, Lin said, urging the government to respond to the families’ requests, compensate them, and rebuild their homes.
To stop further disputes due to land expropriation, the party would restart its campaign to amend the Land Expropriation Act (土地徵收條例), Lin added.
Additional reporting by Chen Hui-ping
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