The Wild Strawberry Student Movement has received support from overseas Taiwanese groups over its planned rally on Sunday, a representative of the movement said yesterday.
Chan Kun-feng (湛昆峰), who is in charge of the movement’s communication with the international community, told the Taipei Times that a number of overseas Taiwanese groups had decided to take to the streets on the same day.
Information provided by Chan said that the “Club des Taiwanais,” an organization primarily composed of Taiwanese students in France, would stage a protest at the Human Rights Plaza at Trocadero, Paris, at 3:30pm on Sunday.
During the protest, the Club des Taiwanais will deliver a speech to “strongly condemn Taiwan’s setback in democracy.”
“It has been one month since the Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)] administration ordered the police to deprive Taiwanese of their freedom to assemble, but there is no sign indicating [the government is willing] to apologize and take responsibility,” said a statement issued by the organization in France. “[The administration] seriously damaged Taiwan’s image as a free democracy and turned a deaf ear to the human rights issue highlighted by the people and the students of the Wild Strawberry [Student Movement].”
In Tokyo, democracy activists from the disbanded Taiwan Political Prisoner Rescue Association are organizing a rally in support of the students in Taipei, Chan said. Members of the Taiwanese American community in San Diego, California, are also planning to sponsor an event at the San Diego Taiwan Center on the day of the rally, Chan said.
In Taipei, some members of the Hoping for Hoping Peace Fest (和平音樂季) are planning to put on a concert of international support for the movement at the Liberty Square next Tuesday evening.
The student protesters are demanding that Ma and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) apologize and that National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) resign from their posts over what they called police brutality against protesters during a visit by a Chinese delegation last month.
The students also called for immediate amendments to the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) to scrap the requirement that demonstrators secure a permit from police.
Student protesters are planning to begin their march without police approval at 1pm to the Executive Yuan, the NPA and the Legislative Yuan, before heading to the Presidential Office along Ketagalan Boulevard.
In related news, the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association (NATPA) is inviting two representatives from the Wild Strawberry Student Movement to meet with the American Institute in Taiwan and US State Department officials and attend UN’s Human Rights Day events next Wednesday.
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
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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
RSS