In preparation for an anti-nuclear parade this afternoon, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union — which is organizing the protest — and a number of Aboriginal activists staged a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday morning.
The activists said the parade expressed their determination to prevent nuclear waste from being disposed of in Aboriginal areas.
Sending up smoke signals on Ketagalan Boulevard reflected the traditional signaling method used by the nation’s Aboriginal tribes, the anti-nuclear activists said, adding that the action was taken to summon more people to participate in today’s parade.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“When natural disasters occur, or when Aboriginal tribes are being attacked by their enemies, the head of the tribe gathers young people to light a fire as quickly as they can,” and the smoke from the fire is used to call for help an Amis Aborigine said.
Jiru Haruq, a priest from Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林), said that one of the sites being considered as a spent nuclear fuel repository is in Sioulin, but when Taiwan Power Co carried out exploratory drilling at the site for evaluation purposes, it only told the village head that the drilling was for making tunnels.
It is wrong of the government to take advantage of people’s lack of knowledge about nuclear power and seek to dispose of nuclear waste in these areas, he added.
Nuclear-Free Homeland Alliance executive director Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) said the government should not think about expanding the use of nuclear power when it has not solved the problem of nuclear waste disposal.
The assembly point for the anti-nuclear parade is at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall at 2pm today.
The parade will set out at 3pm and is scheduled to reach Ketagalan Boulevard at 5pm, where an evening event will be held until 8pm.
‘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