The measures employed by police to ensure the safety of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) have drawn criticism from several lawyers and nongovernmental organizations that question whether the police were acting within the bounds of the law and the Constitution.
Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), secretary-general of the Taipei Bar Association, said that when dispersing protesters or trying to prevent clashes, police should make sure that their actions reflect the circumstances. Otherwise, they infringe on the freedoms of association and expression guaranteed under the Constitution.
“Some actions taken by the police [on Monday and yesterday] clearly went beyond constitutional parameters,” Kao said.
Kao suggested that people use cameras or cellphones to record stop and search actions by police outside the security zone.
If people feel that the police are acting beyond their powers, they should lodge a judicial complaint, he said.
Kao said the Constitution guaranteed freedom of association, and that police had to act according to the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), the purpose of which is to ensure the freedom of association, not restrict it.
Several legal observers also questioned why police forcibly removed people carrying Republic of China flags, as holding or waving the national flag is not forbidden by the Social Order Maintenance Law (社會秩序維護法).
Only if flagpoles are seen as weapons or if flags are used to attack other people may the police take action against them, the observers said. After police on Monday forcibly kept people holding balloons from coming close to the conference venue or police exclusion lines, legal observers said that balloons could not be forbidden unless they have dangerous items attached to them or pose some other kind of real threat.
Yao Sea-yun (姚思遠), dean of the College of Law at Chinese Culture University, said that although freedom of speech is not absolute, the government should take an approach of maximum tolerance and not impose excessive restrictions.
The executive director of the Judicial Reform Foundation, Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正), said that the biggest difference between Taiwan and China is that one is democratic and the other autocratic.
“It was reasonable to set up an exclusion zone to ensure Chen’s safety, but beyond that people should be allowed to express dissenting views,” he said.
Lin urged victims of police violence to file lawsuits, and asked them to call the Taiwan Association for Human Rights hotline at (02) 2363-9798 or fax to (02) 2363-6102 for legal assistance.
At a separate setting yesterday, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) criticized the measures taken to protect Chen Yunlin.
“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) talked about an equal footing and dignity, but I don’t know what he meant — the five-starred [Chinese] flag can be displayed at will, but the Taiwanese flag has to be taken away,” he said. “Seven thousand to 9,000 policemen have been deployed. This is something that was not even seen at the presidential inauguration ceremony four years ago, when there were presidents from 15 countries.”
The Mainland Affairs Council dismissed allegations that the government had adopted overly drastic measures to muffle protesters. It added that the government did not order the Grand Hotel or neighboring buildings to put away national flags. Police and security personnel were just doing their job to protect visiting guests, it said.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Protocol, the standard security detail for a foreign head of state when visiting Taiwan is five personal bodyguards for a president and a small number of police cars to protect the dignitary’s vehicle.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday that the incident concerning ARATS Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) late last month, along with “some people’s incitement of violence against Chen [Yunlin],” had put the police on high alert.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG, JENNY W. HSU AND LOA IOK-SIN
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its