Although disappointed by the Hansen’s disease patients’ rights bill passed by the legislature yesterday, Lo Sheng Sanatorium residents and activists said it was “acceptable.”
“I guess the law is acceptable, but we’re not 100 percent happy about it,” said Lee Tien-pei (李添培), chairman of the Lo Sheng residents’ self-help organization.
Lo Sheng Sanatorium, in Sinjhuang City (新莊), Taipei County, was built during the Japanese colonial period to house lepers.
“The law did not fully address our demand to completely preserve the sanatorium complex, nor did it say anything about our right to continue to live there,” he said. “But at least it provides a gray area for our future struggle since it mentions turning the sanatorium into a memorial park.”
Article eight of the bill provides for a memorial park within the Lo Sheng Sanatorium to commemorate.
A plan to demolish the sanatorium complex triggered the Lo Sheng preservation and residents’ rights campaigns.
Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳), secretary-general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, called the passage of the bill “a starting point to face historical wrongs,” but said the bill fell short of fully respecting human rights.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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