President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday turned down a demand from student protesters that the country’s national security and police chiefs be replaced over what the protesters say was police mishandling of recent pro-independence demonstrations.
Ma said there was room for improvement in the performance of National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) and National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) in handling the demonstrations.
“But this was not to the extent that they should be removed from their posts,” Ma said during an interview with UFO Radio.
Groups of college students have been staging sit-ins since last Thursday to protest against the use of excessive force by police to disperse protesters during the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last week.
Students in other parts of the nation joined the protest by staging sit-ins at their respective schools.
A group of students launched a sit-in at the 228 Memorial Park in Chiayi yesterday, making them the sixth student group in the nation to join the campaign after the sit-ins in Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung began on Sunday and Monday.
The students made three demands: that Ma and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) apologize, that Wang and Tsai step down for what they called the use of “excessive force” by police last week, and that the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) be amended.
Ma dodged the demand that he and Liu apologize and asked the students to look at “the whole picture” because Chen’s visit was successful, as four agreements were signed and served the public’s interests.
Ma said that Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) had on many occasions apologized over the law-enforcement officers’ conduct and promised to review the methods adopted by the police in performing their duties.
On the students’ proposal to change the Assembly and Parade Law, which requires rally organizers to apply for permits from the police, Ma said the idea was consistent with his own proposal that the organizers of such gatherings should be required only to notify police in advance.
However, Ma said the students must recognize the fact that their opinion represents only one of many different views in Taiwan.
The current system is actually very loose, because almost all applications for public rallies are approved, once there is no specific reason to reject them, Ma said.
Meanwhile, the students yesterday urged both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to propose a specific timetable for when the Assembly and Parade Law would be amended.
In a press release on their official Web blog (action1106.blogspot.com), the students welcomed the legislature’s move to put several proposed amendments to the law to committee review. But the students urged both parties to clearly promise to lift the requirements on gaining approval from law enforcement authorities before holding a rally and eliminate limits on rallies in certain areas and authorization for the police to dismiss a parade.
Article 6 of the law bans any rallies near the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, the Examination Yuan, the Judicial Yuan, all courts and residences of the president and vice president. Rallies are also forbidden at international airports, sea ports, important military zones, foreign consulates as well as the offices of any international organization in Taiwan.
“President Ma said yesterday [Tuesday] that the matter of debate was not whether organizers would be allowed to only report their planned rallies but how violence [during rallies could be prevented],” the release said. “This shows that he still takes a conservative stance and [prioritizes] social order while ignoring that the Assembly and Parade Law should be meant to protect freedom of speech.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we