Oral arguments began on Tuesday in a case that is to determine whether laws restricting hunting and firearms infringe on the constitutional rights of Aborigines.
The case stems from the August 2013 arrest of Bunun hunter Tama Talum, also known as Wang Guang-lu (王光祿), after he was found in possession of two dead protected animals and a shotgun.
The man from Taitung County’s Haiduan Township (海端) said during a trial that he hunted the animals for his ailing 94-year-old mother.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Talum was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例).
In Talum’s appeal to the Supreme Court in 2017, the judges decided to suspend the trial until the Council of Grand Justices issues an interpretation on whether the laws breach the constitutional rights of Aborigines.
Talum was joined in the petition by Pan Chih-chiang (潘志強), a Puyuma who was sentenced on similar charges, and the Taoyuan District Court.
The justices are to hear arguments from the petitioners, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Police Agency, the Council of Agriculture, experts on Aboriginal issues, conservationists and others, before issuing an interpretation within one month.
In a statement issued by the Legal Aid Foundation, which is helping with their defense, Talum and Pan said that hunting is an “important and immutable part of village life.”
“Hunting is not a profession; it is a skill that must be learned by protectors in traditional fields, a way of life passed down to the present, a necessary medium connecting members of a tribe with their ancestors,” Pan said. “And it is an important symbol for Aborigines.”
Under current laws, Aborigines are only allowed to use homemade firearms, which opponents say are unsafe and inhumane, as it is difficult to accurately target animals to ensure instant death.
At the hearing, Ministry of the Interior representative Kung Wen-hsiang (宮文祥) said that homemade firearms are sufficient to protect the hunting rights of Aborigines.
Homemade shotguns must be front-loading and therefore less efficient to better protect the rights of others, Kung said.
However, National Police Agency senior specialist Feng Chiang-sheng (馮強生) said that homemade firearms pose a risk of backfiring, so the law was amended last year, and various agencies are working on how to provide safe gun components to Aborigines.
Talum and Pan are also challenging the clarity of the Wildlife Conservation Act, as it only stipulates penalties for hunting “general wild animals” without permission, but does not address protected species.
Forestry Bureau Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said in court that there were omissions, which the bureau is working on rectifying.
First, it plans to amend Article 20-1 to allow Aborigines to hunt for “personal use,” in addition to “traditional cultural and ritual” purposes, Lin said.
He said Aborigines should not face criminal charges, even if they kill a protected species without permission, adding that Article 50-1 would be amended to reflect this.
However, he emphasized that the law would not protect commercial hunting.
The draft amendment was sent to the Executive Yuan for review in January last year and, if approved, would be forwarded to the Legislative Yuan, Lin added.
Attorney Hsu Cheng-tzu (許正次), representative for the petitioners’ legal team, said that if the ruling falls in their favor, it would hopefully show lawmakers their obligation to create a friendly environment for Aboriginal hunters.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
RSS