Lawmakers across party lines yesterday called on the government to identify police officers alleged to have used excessive force to disperse protesters during the Sunflower movement.
They also pledged to pass amendments to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) during the current legislative session.
The Sunflower movement refers to student-led protests that began on March 18, 2014, in which the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber was occupied for almost 23 days to protest a trade in services agreement with China and how it was handled by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
During those protests, demonstrators attempting to storm the Executive Yuan on March 24 were turned back by riot police; videos and photographs showing officers striking unarmed protesters in the head with batons later surfaced, fueling accusations that the officers had used excessive force to disperse the crowd.
Even though the faces of several officers can be clearly seen in several photographs and in video footage, none of the officers have been identified by the authorities.
At the time, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) criticized then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and then-National Police Agency director-general Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) for alleged illegal use of force, but it has not sought to bring any of the police officers to account since it returned to power, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy chairman Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said on Sunday.
It is the DPP’s responsibility as the ruling party to identify the alleged perpetrators and the KMT would not obstruct its efforts, Lin said.
“I believe the student participants in the protests want the perpetrators found,” Lin said.
“The time to reform the Assembly and Parade Act is now,” Lin said, adding that the KMT caucus is open to abolishing the law or simply amending it.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the bill had hit a snag because of disagreements between government agencies and advocacy groups over legal terminology, including clauses referring to “restricted zones” and “compulsory removal.”
The DPP caucus discussed the issue with government agencies and will hold talks with the advocacy groups, Chen said.
If a consensus is reached, the party would introduce a bill for a new law after the conclusion of the general question-and-answer portion of the general assembly, but during the current session, Chen said.
The China Unification Promotion Party and Patriot Association have frequently harassed other groups, and the proposed new law would be aimed at protecting the safety of the public during assemblies and parades, Chen said.
Police officers who have beaten people would be held accountable and officers would be required to wear insignia while on duty that would identify them in case of disputes, Chen said.
Attorney Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), deputy director of the Taiwan Forever Association, said none of the alleged police perpetrators had been identified because prosecutors and the police are obstructing the investigation, even though the victims are pursuing cases in court and the statute of limitation on the alleged crimes has not expired.
“For operating a loudspeaker, Dennis Wei (魏揚) of the Black Island National Youth Front was detained as a ringleader in a meritless and politically motivated prosecution,” Huang said.
“However, a policeman who was videotaped and seen striking people with a baton by the whole nation was not arrested. It is impossible that the police’s forensic technology cannot identify him after three years. A cover-up is the only explanation,” the attorney said.
“The justice system continues to be subordinated to political forces and act as enforcers of partisan interests,” Huang said.
Taiwan’s judicial system compares unfavorably to Hong Kong’s, where seven police officers were recently convicted for using excessive force during the Umbrella Movement protests in 2014, Huang added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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