Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) began a hunger strike yesterday afternoon in support of the release of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who has been in prison since 2008 and suffers from multiple mental and physical disorders.
Accompanied by Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), his sisters, Chen Hsiu-ching (陳秀金) and Chen Hsiu-chin (陳秀琴), as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and former minister of national defense Tsai Ming-shian (蔡明憲), Lu officially declared in front of the National Taiwan Museum that she would remain on a hunger strike until the government decides to release Chen Shui-bian.
Speaking at a news conference before retreating into a tent for the hunger strike, Lu accused the government of political interference in the judicial process and criticized what she called Chen Shui-bian’s inhumane treatment in prison and the rejection of his medical parole, which she said has contributed to the worsening of his mental and physical health to the degree that it is threatening his life.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
“It’s because of these reasons that I am beginning a hunger strike,” she said.
Lu said the move was not only in support of Chen Shui-bian’s human rights, but also a gesture of her appreciation for Chen Shui-bian’s choice to make her vice president in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
“Chen Shui-bian’s imprisonment has been a major cause of political polarization and releasing him could be a first step toward reconciliation and a brighter future for Taiwan,” Lu said, in tears as she spoke.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Chen Hsiu-chin said that as Lu is already in her 60s, “it is worrisome that she insists on going on a hunger strike in such cold weather.”
“I hereby call on [President] Ma [Ying-jeou, 馬英九] to let go of the hate that he harbors and let Chen Shui-bian go home,” she said.
Tsai also voiced concerns over Chen Shui-bian’s well-being, saying that the former president has said to him that if he dies in prison, “he would like to have his coffin paraded down Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building, before being taken to his home in Greater Tainan.”
Speaking on behalf of the DPP, Wu said: “Enough is enough,” calling on the government to release Chen Shui-bian immediately.
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
RSS