Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) yesterday had a loud confrontation with Kinmen County councilors who tried to interrupt her news conference, at which she accused the police of taking sides when she and other protesters were reportedly attacked by black-clad men on Saturday.
“You better go away now, do not mess with us here, I have called some people, and they are on their way,” said independent Kinmen County Councilor Shih Yung-cheng (石永城), who showed up at a police station where Chou was holding a news conference.
Chou had called the news conference to draw attention to what she said was an assault on TSU members who were protesting outside a meeting between Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) in Kinmen on Friday.
Shih was not the only Kinmen councilor who turned up unexpectedly at the news conference: The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Ouyang Yi-hsiung (歐陽儀雄) and Hsu Hua-yu (許華玉) were also present.
“I regret and feel stunned that Kinmen County councilors are openly trying to interrupt our news conference — it is even more shocking that Shih threatened us by saying that he has ‘called some people’ over,” Chou said afterwards. “Taiwan is a democracy with the rule of law, the police should protect our freedom of expression and the safety of TSU members in Kinmen.”
Chou said that police did little to stop TSU protesters from being assaulted by black-clad men on Friday.
“I highly suspect that the police turned a blind eye on the assaults,” Chou said. “Otherwise, why was only one out of so many attackers arrested?”
She said that TSU Department of Youth Affairs director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) had asked the police to be on the lookout for men in black outfits; however, the police efforts were instead focused on protesters.
“Therefore the police were not able to react when the attack happened,” she said. “We hereby urge the police to quickly launch a probe into the incident, find out where those black-clad men are, where they came from, whether they are locals or from elsewhere and if they are from elsewhere, we need to know where they came from.”
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