Aboriginal rights campaigners yesterday condemned the government for having not carried out a promise to reinstate traditional Aboriginal territories, and they demanded that an independent agency be established to restore Aboriginal rights to land and transitional justice.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 1 last year delivered a landmark apology to Taiwan’s Aborigines for their deprivation of rights in the hundreds of years since the mass migration of Han people began.
She promised to reinstate land rights, self-determination, economic development, cultural and language preservation and other rights protection.
Photo: CNA
Tsai yesterday said the government has worked to preserve Aboriginal languages and culture by immersing Aboriginal preschoolers and students in a learning environment where their native languages are spoken.
Aboriginal campaigners who have been staging a camp-out near the Presidential Office Building in Taipei for 160 days said Tsai had failed to keep her promises to restore Aboriginal rights.
They criticized the guidelines the Cabinet released on Feb. 14 on the delineation of traditional Aboriginal territories, which would restrict the application of the “traditional area” label to government-owned land, explicitly excluding private land.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
It would reduce recognized traditional territories from 1.8 million hectares to 800,000 hectares while companies would be allowed to develop traditional Aboriginal land that is now in private hands without the consent of local Aborigines, they said.
“Tsai promised that the government would prioritize the issue of traditional territories, but it turns out it is only limited to government-owned land,” Amis activist Panai Kusui said.
Documentary filmmaker Mayaw Biho, an Amis who has been an active member of the camp-out, called on the government to legislate an Aboriginal transitional justice law and establish an agency similar to the Cabinet’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee to investigate the deprivation of Aboriginal rights.
Photo: CNA
That would be a way to achieve understanding and reconciliation, he said.
The Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee, which was established last year to understand the history of Aboriginal rights deprivation and reinstate those rights, does not have the necessary executive or investigative powers to perform its functions, Mayaw said.
“It is an irresponsible reform if the ruling party acts like it has done a lot and put in a great deal of effort in an effort to convince the public it is trying to tackle a problem,” Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fang (林飛帆) said.
Lin criticized Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Yao Jen-to (姚人多) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kolas Yotaka for saying that the protesters do not respresent the nation’s Aborigines.
“Why can a person in power [Yao] be so careless about his authority, but treat protesters in quite a different way? What is the difference between the government and the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]?” Lin said.
The Executive Yuan said that efforts are under way to provide further protection to Aboriginal languages, land and resource rights.
The president has held talks with Aboriginal delegates, and the traditional territories delineation guidelines and landmark Aboriginal Language Development Act (原住民族語言發展法) have been promulgated, while legal rulings have been made to ensure that Aborigines could practice traditional hunting, fishing and harvesting, the Executive Yuan said.
The Cabinet has also completed the preliminary investigation into a government decision to deposit nuclear waste on Orchid Island (蘭嶼, Lanyu) without the knowledge and consent of the local Tao community when Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿) were premier.
The Cabinet will create an institutional environment for the development of Aboriginal cultures and achieve transitional justice and harmony between ethnic groups, the Executive Yuan said.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from