Wed, Oct 11, 2006 page3

• National Day Protest: Red tide of protest swamps Taipei

  TACTICS The anti-president campaign succeeded in disrupting the official national day ceremony and caused traffic chaos with impromptu `parades' in the afternoon

  • By Mo Yan-chih / STAFF REPORTER
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  Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets yesterday in the "siege" around the Presidential Office building aimed at pressuring President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to step down.

  The "siege" was launched by the anti-Chen campaign led by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德).

  The protest began at 9am as red-clad protesters gathered at four locations a few blocks away from the Presidential Office building. The protesters shouted "A-bian step down" and flashed the thumbs down gesture at the time Chen was scheduled to give a speech at the stage outside the Presidential Office building.

  

  Red-clad protesters participating in yesterday morning's anti-Chen Shui-bian ``siege'' block the intersection of Chongqing S Rd and Wuchang St, bringing traffic to a complete standstill.

  PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES

  Despite the protest being illegal because the anti-Chen camp organizers had not applied for a permit, the Taipei City Police Department did not disperse the crowd even though they gave several warnings.

  POLITICAL ISSUE

  Showing up at the Taipei Railway Station at 10am, Shih said the demonstration was a political issue.

  "Whether or not the siege should be dispersed is not a legal issue, but a political one ? The most important thing is that President Chen needs to make a decision in response to the people's demands," he said.

  Shih said the morning "siege" had set another record -- after the first "siege" on Sept. 15 -- because more than 1.5 million people had taken part. Shih urged Chen to respond to demands that he step down and vowed to continue the protest until the president did so.

  "I stand by the people, and I will not leave if the people want to stay," he said.

  Police estimated that approximately 120,000 people participated in the "siege."

  AFTERNOON LOGJAMS

  Shortly after 4pm, Shih led his followers in a parade rally along Zhongxiao W Road, Zhongxiao E Road, Dunhua S Road and Nanjing E Road before returning to the Taipei Railway Station. A second wave of rallies was held four hours later.

  Taipei City's transportation department said the afternoon rally created traffic problems.

  "What we can do now is monitor the rallies and control the traffic flow," said Lin Li-yu (林麗玉), deputy commissioner of the department.

  Several violent incidents were reported yesterday morning, as protesters tried to block officials, pan-green legislators and foreign guests from entering and leaving the Double Ten National Day ceremony in front of the Presidential Office building.

  While apparently condemning the violence, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said the police would not disperse the protesters unless necessary, even though the "siege" was illegal.

  "The police department does not rashly disperse protesters. Besides, we only have about 5,000 police today, while there are tens of thousands of protesters. It's hard for the police to disperse such a big crowd," Ma said at the Taipei Police Department in the morning.

  In the afternoon, however, he urged the anti-Chen campaign to consider the rights of Taipei's residents. He also said the police would enforce the law against any illegal demonstrations.

  Chien Hsi-chieh, deputy coordinator of the anti-Chen campaign, said yesterday's protests were a way of celebrating the nation's birthday.

  "It was not necessary to apply for a parade permit for today. It's our way of celebrating the nation's birthday," he said.

  VIOLENCE CONDEMNED

  Meanwhile, Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) condemned the acts of violence by anti-Chen protesters, saying that the government would not tolerate them.

  Lee cited scuffles in which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Ming-hsien (李明憲) and Sanlih TV staff were "beaten," as well as the egging of DPP Legislator Lin Kuo-ching's (林國慶) car.

  Shih said on Monday that the siege would proceed with "love, peace and non-violence."

  DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said Ma should take responsibility.

  "He should not remain weak, incompetent and keep conniving with illegal protests anymore," Lin said.

  While Ma earlier demanded that the crowd disperse by 11pm at the latest, after he arrived at the Taipei City Police Department at 10pm, he announced that he had pushed the deadline to disperse back to 12am. He later added that he hoped the protest would "stay peaceful" and disperse by that time.

  Shih said at 9pm that his followers would spend the night on Zhongxiao W Road and stay there until tonight. The anti-Chen camp has a permit to gather in the Taipei Railway Station's southern plaza, but the crowds chose to sit on the road, with Shih in the front row.

  Riot police were dispatched to the scene at 10pm.

  Additional reporting by Max Hirsch, Flora Wang and Shih Hsiu-chuan
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