Residents of the Atayal Aboriginal village of Hagay in Taoyuan County’s Fusing Township (復興) yesterday protested the county government’s 10-year delay in rebuilding their village after the original one was destroyed in a natural disaster.
“We want to go home! We want to go back to a real home!” Hagay residents, accompanied by rights advocates and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), shouted during a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
“It’s been 10 years and we still live in temporary housing units,” said Tai Li-chuan (戴禮娟), a spokeswoman for the village.
Photo: CNA
“The county government never fulfilled its promise to rebuild the village for us according to our wishes,” Tai added.
The location of the original Hagay Village along the Dahan River (大漢溪) was put in danger in the 1990s because the construction of a dam altered the river’s course.
The dam collapsed in 2001 when Typhoon Nari dumped a massive amount of water in the river’s catchment area, which the dam could not handle, leaving the downstream Atayal Baling Village in ruins.
The government then resettled members of the community in Shangsule — originally only for three years — while promising to build new homes for them there. However, the houses were never built.
In addition to the delay in the reconstruction process, Hagay villagers are also not satisfied with the county government’s plan to build 17 ping (56m2) houses consisting of one room, one bathroom and one living room for each family, saying that was insufficient space for their families, Tai said.
Villagers then put forward their own plans for two or three-story houses last year, but the county government turned down the request, she said.
“The government was quick to demolish the homes of the Wangs in Shilin District (士林), Taipei City, yet it is taking so long to rebuild houses for disaster victims,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights executive member and Soochow University law professor Wu Hao-jen (吳豪人) said, referring to the Taipei City Government’s forcible eviction of a family named Wang (王) on Wednesday last week to make way for a new housing complex.
“The government always says that it acts according to the law, but if our laws are only causing people to become homeless, we don’t know what we need laws for,” Wu said.
However, Taoyuan County’s Indigenous Peoples Bureau Deputy Director Lin Ji-lung (林日龍), who also attended the news conference, rebutted the accusation.
“We have worked hard to fulfill our promise. It took us five years — from 2003 to 2008 — to complete the process of changing the land category of the planned reconstruction site from ‘forestry land’ to ‘building land,’” Lin said.
As for turning down the request to build bigger houses, Lin said that the construction method to be used in the plan initiated by the Hagay residents “is meant for transitional housing units, but we’re looking to build permanent houses.”
‘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
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
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
RSS