The Taipei Police Department said yesterday that it would allocate 5,000 officers to help maintain order during a protest planned for tomorrow against President Chen Shui-bian (
The anti-Chen campaign has called for 2 million people to join its "siege" tomorrow by encircling the Presidential Office building from four directions during the Double Ten National Day celebration.
"The Double Ten National Day siege against Chen is illegal because the anti-Chen campaign did not apply to the city police department for a rally permit," Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Wang Cho-chiun (
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"The rally would violate the Assembly and Parade Law (
He said if the anti-Chen campaign used the underground radio stations to call on the public to join the rally and to give orders during the campaign, as it proposed to do, it might violate the Broadcasting and Television Law (
Wang asked the anti-Chen camp to keep its supporters calm during the protest.
"Police will remove and arrest protesters if they break the law during the rally," he said.
The head of the department's Peacekeeping Division, Huang Ching-fu (
Special police are officers whose primary job is to keep order during mass demonstrations.
Huang said that maintaining the security of the Double Ten National Day celebration site, making sure foreign guests attending the celebration could easily enter and leave the site and preventing violence between rival groups outside parade site would be priorities.
Police imposed traffic control restrictions on roads of the Presidential Office yesterday that bar all vehicles from entering the streets near the Presidential Office. The restrictions will remain in effect through tomorrow.
Taipei MRT officials also announced yesterday that all exits of the National Taiwan University Hospital Station, Xiaonanmen Station and some of exits for the CKS Memorial Hall Station will be closed from 6am tomorrow until the the end of the official ceremony.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice yesterday designated a number of Taipei prosecutors to monitor tomorrow's protest.
The ministry said in a statement that anyone breaking the law would be prosecuted.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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