Protesters in Taipei demand apology for Dapu demolitions
CNA 2013-07-24 12:14
Civic groups and Dapu residents took part in the protest in Taipei on July 23. (Photo/CNA)
Several civic groups staged a protest on Katagalan Boulevard in Taipei on Tuesday, demanding that the government apologize for the forced demolition of four homes in the village of Dapu in northern Taiwan's Miaoli county.
The protesters, from the Dapu Self-Help Organization, the Alliance for the Defense of Farming Villages, and Taiwan Rural Front, said if the government does not meet their demands by Aug. 18, they will call on the public to "demolish" the government.
President Ma Ying-jeou, Vice President Wu Den-yih, Premier Jiang Yi-huah, and Miaoli county magistrate Liu Cheng-hung must apologize to the owners of the four demolished homes, the demonstrators said.
They also called on the central government to investigate an alleged hike in land prices by Liu in Maioli county.
The central government should amend the Land Expropriation Act and suspend all land acquisitions nationwide until then, the protestors said.
Carrying banners that read "demolish the burglar-like government," the protesters shouted "apologize, compensate, return the land to the owners, investigate scandals and amend laws."
Taiwan Rural Front spokesperson Frida Tsai said Taipei turned a blind eye to the demolition of the homes and allowed the county government to go through with it.
On July 18, four homes in Dapu were demolished to make way for a science park that is being built by the county government.
The demolition was carried out while Dapu residents and civic groups were protesting that morning in Taipei. The home owners returned in the evening to find their houses reduced to rubble.
The civic groups at Tuesday's protest displayed pictures of three locations at which the rubble, including the home owners' personal belongings, was dumped.
The protesters said one of the home owners, Chang Sen-wen, was asked to pay NT$242,000 (US$8,000) in "moving expenses" after his house was demolished. This is the exact amount that Chang received from the county government in compensation for the expropriation of his six ping (19.8 square meter) home, the demonstrators said.
Perng Ming-hwei, professor emeritus at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu in northern Taiwan, said at the protest that there are already too many science parks in Taiwan and they have a very low utilization rate.
Also on Tuesday, police arrested Hsu Shih-jung, a land economics professor at the National Chengchi University in Taipei, for attempting to breach a restricted area in front of the new Ministry of Health and Welfare. President Ma was scheduled to attend a ceremony there at around 11 am to inaugurate the ministry.
Hsu, along with a student from Taipei's National Taiwan University and other protesters against the Dapu demolition case, were there to try to petition Ma but were repeatedly chased away by the police. Hsu and the student, surnamed Lu, were later taken to a nearby police station.
Police said both of them may be charged with disrupting public order and obstructing an officer in discharge of his duties.
