More than 30 pro-independence organizations yesterday began an eight-day rally calling for the release of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and protesting against what they regard as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) poor performance.
Gathered in front of the Taipei Railway Station, the civic groups released a nine-point statement on a wide range of issues, including freezing fuel and electricity prices, keeping the ban on beef imports containing the livestock feed additive ractopamine, Chen’s release from jail, the elimination of nuclear power, amendments to the Referendum Act (公投法), reform of the electoral system, self-determination for Taiwan and ending “inappropriate” land expropriation.
They also called for the government to stop paying Ma for what they termed his “failed policies.”
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The protest, which was organized under the theme “Let me live,” will be held at the plaza in front of the station until May 20, when Ma’s second term inauguration will be held.
“We call for all those who support our appeals and have suffered under Ma’s leadership to participate in the demonstration,” 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign convener Peter Wang (王獻極) told a press conference at the plaza yesterday.
Various groups are scheduled to hold different activities, including church services, film screenings and anti-nukes and anti-hunger events in the eight-day demonstration.
Wang said the -demonstration would be part of a national protest held in conjunction with massive rallies organized by the Democratic Progressive Party on May 19 and the Taiwan Solidarity Union on May 20.
The groups do not rule out extending the protest if the Ma administration does not respond in a timely fashion, Wang said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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