Members of Hualien’s Truku community rallied outside the Hualien County Police Bureau in Hualien City on Nov. 7 to protest last month’s arrest of Truku hunters in Taroko National Park and the confiscation of their firearms and haul of game during the Truku Thanksgiving Day feast.
Dowmung Tribal Council Chairman Masaw (鍾德光), who was one of the hunters arrested last month, said the protesters demand that police respect their right to hunt and call on the government to abolish special jurisdiction and police checkpoints in restricted mountain areas, which he called “toxic residue from the Martial Law era.”
Chung said that he and three others were arrested in Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園) on Oct. 15 when returning from a legal hunt conducted on behalf of the Sioulin Township (秀林) Truku community in Hualien’s Tongmen Village (銅門) as part of ritual celebrations for their Thanksgiving Day festival.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
Although the hunting party had obtained a valid 12-day license on Oct. 3, the hunters were arrested and their weapons and game were confiscated by police on the grounds that two animals they hunted and killed, a Reeves’ muntjac and a Formosan sambar, were on the endangered species list, Chung said.
Five of their firearms, including a “keepsake from a [hunter’s] deceased grandfather,” were confiscated, as well as the meat from their kills — 14 flying squirrels and the two endangered animals — leaving what the Truku community considered as gifts to their ancestral spirits to “rot in the sun,” he said.
“Why is hunting [protected] monkeys permitted, but hunting muntjacs and sambar forbidden?” Chung asked, adding that “the government does not see Aborigines as human beings,” a possible reference to a now infamous statement made in 2007 by then-presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to a gathering of Aboriginal peoples: “I see you as human beings… [Therefore] you have to play by our rules.”
A dozen police officers armed with batons prevented the protesters from entering the Hualien County Police Bureau compound to deliver a petition.
“Do they think we are rioters?” an unnamed demonstrator asked.
“If Ma can visit [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping, 習近平] in Singapore, why is it so hard for Aboriginal citizens to visit a police commissioner?” another unnamed protester asked.
After Deputy Commissioner Yang Kuo-Hsiang (楊國祥) met with the protesters outside and accepted their petition, they voluntarily returned home.
“The police continue to arrest indigenous hunters for alleged violations of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法),” said Chen Tsai-yi (陳采邑), an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation’s Working Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Legal Affairs.
“However, articles in both the Wildlife Conservation Act and the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法) explicitly allow ‘the hunting and killing of wildlife’ for the ‘traditional, cultural or ritual’ needs of indigenous peoples,” she said.
“There is nothing wrong with hunting by Aboriginal communities if they follow their traditions, and the endangered species list needs to be updated more regularly,” said Wu Hsing-ju (吳幸如), a life science doctoral candidate at National Taiwan Normal University and a researcher of wild boars in Taiwan.
“Relevant laws have long since been amended, but law enforcement officers on the front lines often neglect the needs of Aboriginal communities and exceed their authority. It is not good that unnecessary conflicts have been created,” Council of Indigenous Peoples Deputy Minister Tunkan Tunsikian said.
Hualien County Bureau of Agriculture Director-General Lo Wen-lung (羅文龍) said the bureau conditionally allows the killing of Formosan rock macaques “in self-defense” when the animals eat produce from farms or orchards, which is not the same as giving legal permission to hunt them.
When asked for comment, Hualien County Forestry Bureau section chief Kuan Li-hao (管立豪) said that while laws and regulations do permit Aboriginal peoples to hunt, approval for the species and numbers they are allowed to kill still “depends on circumstances,” and Aboriginal hunters should keep to “the restrictions stipulated by their hunting permits.”
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS