New Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) yesterday promised Aboriginal activists and Typhoon Morakot victims from Aboriginal regions that he would respect and defend their wishes regarding reconstruction.
“The most important thing in reconstruction and drawing up resettlement plans for Aboriginal regions is the wishes of the communities involved,” Sun told a group of storm survivors and activists during a meeting at the council. “I understand that resettling is serious and not like moving one person.”
Sun’s statement won applause from activists and victims.
The groups have protested the Cabinet’s reconstruction plan, which was drawn up under former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), as it does not place much emphasis on involving victims in the process.
Many victims are afraid that they may be forced to leave their villages if geologists mark the sites as “geologically unstable.”
The victims are also not happy that some charity groups, with support from the government, repeatedly pressured victims to accept charity-sponsored resettlement plans that the victims did not agree with.
While many politicians have made promises, the victims seem to have more trust in the new minister, because Sun is an academic who has long supported the Aboriginal rights campaign and is on good terms with many of the activists present.
“President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] and other politicians kept promising us that the victims’ wishes were the priority, but that’s not what the bill that was passed shows,” Lituan, a typhoon survivor from Namasiya Township (那瑪夏), Kaohsiung County, who now lives in a shelter, told the meeting.
“Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation knocked on our doors day and night in a very disturbing way asking us to agree to their resettlement plan,” he said. “Some who couldn’t stand it signed the agreement, and now the victims in the shelter are split into two groups that are constantly arguing with each other.”
Lituan said he could not understand why all the villages in Kaohsiung County’s Namasiya and Taoyuan (桃源) townships have to be resettled when some villages remained untouched by the disaster.
Jacob Hu (胡雅各), from Jialan Village (嘉蘭村) in Jinfong Township (金峰), Taitung County, said that their village was devastated by massive floods because of poor infrastructure and maintenance.
“The Taimali River [太麻里溪] that flows through our village was only dredged once in the last four years, with the mud dug up from the riverbed piled along the river,” Hu said. “When the rain came, the mud washed into the river and blocked its flow, which resulted in disaster.”
He said that Jialan Village did not need to be resettled, adding that it would be sufficient to clean the river periodically and rebuild the embankment.
“I’ve toured disaster areas and will continue to do so to listen to your wishes,” Sun said in conclusion. “I understand that some people prefer resettling, some people want to stay in their home villages, while others want transitional settlement at the moment so that they can have more time to think about what they want — all these should be well respected, that’s my promise.”
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RSS