Aboriginal leaders claimed yesterday to hold the key to the presidential election, demanding that both political camps act to prevent their way of life from being wiped out.
Community leaders led a march yesterday to protest decades of what they said were human rights abuses and claimed that successive governments had ignored their appeals to preserve their language and identity.
They claimed that Aborigines represented 5 percent of the country's 23 million people and could swing the vote on March 20, with President Chen Shui-bian (
"We may be a minority but we believe our votes will play a crucial role in this tight election," said protest organizer Pan Jae-yang, without expressing support for either camp.
Pan said, "Neither the KMT nor the DPP government has offered any help in preserving our culture and heritage. This is practically genocide of our race as we watch our language and culture being slowly wiped out."
Several hundred protesters marched from Chen's campaign headquarters to Lien's and delivered petitions to both camps demanding improved rights for Aborigines.
Aborigines receive some government money to help preserve their culture but Aboriginal leaders say that another 800,000 people living outside the nation's mountainous regions suffer from not being officially recognized by the government.
"We are truly the masters of Taiwan, but our rights and benefits are ignored by the Chen government," said independent Legislator May Chin (
She said that Chen had gone back on promises made to the Aboriginal people four years ago.
"He pledged to grant us greater autonomy in our tribal settlements and more resources, but nothing substantial has been done to improve our people's lives," she said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS