More than 100 protesters from more than 30 civic groups yesterday marched against forced evictions, calling for land development and urban renewal to be halted until related laws and regulations are reviewed.
Shouting “solidarity” and “zero eviction” in English and Chinese, protesters threw shoes at a cardboard box barrier on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. The barrier was covered with slogans representing a lack of public participation, abuse of public power to further private interests and a lack of avenues of relief under current rules.
“There are all sorts of shortcomings with current land policy, including the laws themselves and their implementation. We want a comprehensive policy review, with a freeze on all controversial cases until it is completed,” said Hsu Shih-chung (許世忠), spokesman for the International Tribunal on Evictions, an opinion court the groups hosted a session for on Saturday to raise awareness of housing rights.
“Land appropriation policy has not fully implemented requirements for the views of residents to be respected, resulting in discussions with residents being reduced to a formality and expropriations occurring by force when residents disagree,” he said.
The march began at the former Huaguang Community (華光社區), stopping outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to protest the ministry’s role in the promotion of land expropriation and development in connection with prominent infrastructure, including plans to expand Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and to move Tainan’s railway line underground.
“The ministry has already turned land development into infrastructure policy, using it to subsidize the costs of major projects, which means that residents affected by MRT and light rail construction and road expansion all face ‘looting’ evictions,” said Chen Chih-hsiao (陳致曉), spokesman for a self-help association of homeowners affected by Tainan’s railway project.
Demonstrators representing eviction cases in seven nations participated in yesterday’s march, along with domestic activists from across the nation.
“This march is important to us, because we are extremely grateful the International Tribunal on Evictions has brought attention to our case,” said Hsueh Chiung-mei (薛?美), a member of a self-help association for residents of a Kaohsiung fruit and vegetable market, who added that the Kaohsiung City Government has been unresponsive to their plight.
Cheng Yuan-wen (鄭淵文), head of a self-help association for residents of Kaohsiung’s Dagouding (大溝頂), said participating in the protest was aimed at forcing the Kaohsiung City Government to address their case.
“We hope that people across Taiwan will hear about our case, because the Kaohsiung City Government will not pay any attention to us otherwise,” he said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
The Taipei District Court today ruled to extend the incommunicado detention of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) for two more months as part of an ongoing corruption trial. Codefendants in the case — real-estate tycoon Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) and Ko's former mayoral office head Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗) — were granted bail of NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) and NT$20 million respectively. Sheen and Lee would also be barred from leaving the country for eight months and prohibited from contact with, harassing, threatening or inquiring after the case with codefendants or witnesses. The two would also be