Led by a royal descendant of an ancient line of Aboriginal Paiwan kings, residents and environmentalists yesterday staged a parade in Daren Township (達仁), Taitung County, to protest Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) plan to build a storage facility for nuclear waste there.
Taipower announced in March that Daren Township and Wangan Township (望安), Penghu County, were the two candidate sites for the nuclear waste dumping ground.
Opposed to the plan, more than 100 Paiwan and Puyuma Aborigines and environmentalists rallied outside a local elementary school yesterday morning, where they were blessed by Paiwan elders in a traditional ritual before they departed. The demonstrators then carried a cross on a two-hour march to the site selected for the facility.
PHOTO: CNA
After arriving at the site, the demonstrators erected the cross and made a smoke signal to inform their ancestral spirits of their determination to defend their ancestral homeland.
While officials and residents in Wangan have already voiced strong opposition to the proposal, Daren Township chief Chang Chin-sheng (張金生) and some residents welcomed the idea of building a nuclear waste site, saying the promised NT$5 billion (US$153 million) in compensation would help develop Daren.
The final decision has not been made.
“Lanyu Township [蘭嶼] in Taitung County has already been storing nuclear waste from around the country for more than 20 years. How can Taiwan Power Co and the Ministry of Economic Affairs continue to force us to take this highly contaminating and dangerous nuclear waste?” asked Lai Chin-feng (賴金風), convener of the Daren Alliance Against Nuclear Waste, adding that the township chief did not represent all Daren Township and Taitung County residents, nor did he represent all of the Paiwan tribe.
“This region has long been a traditional domain of the Tacupul Kingdom, and it’s the job of all descendants of Tacupul to defend it,” said Sauljaljuy Ruvaniyaw, a member of the Ruvaniyaw family — the royal family of the Tacupul Kingdom that ruled in Daren and its neighboring areas hundreds of years ago.
“This is our home and our country — you have no right to invade it and have no right to ask me why we don’t want nuclear waste here,” Ruvaniyaw said. “Just like a robber has no right to ask why the owner of the house won’t leave.”
“The grandparents of my grandparents lived here, they hunted here, they gathered food here, they fished here and they farmed here. That’s what the grandchildren of my grandchildren will do here, too,” she said. “I am Sauljaljuy Ruvaniyaw, the ruler of the Paiwan Kingdom of Tacupul.”
The rally and the march are only the beginning of the mobilization against the nuclear waste dumping ground, Ruvaniyaw said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS