New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) yesterday called for an independent investigation into allegations that police used excessive force during a protest in Taipei on Friday.
The Railway Bureau on Tuesday last week began tearing down the three remaining homes that stood in the way of a planned railway relocation project.
Having been unsuccessful in their protests in Tainan, a group of students on Friday traveled to Taipei to protest in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
However, after the protest turned violent, police began restraining people, including a journalist from an online media company, Chiu said, adding that there were allegations that police used excessive force as they held people down on the ground while restraining them.
During a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday, at which Control Yuan Secretary-General Chu Fu-mei (朱富美) was invited to speak, Chiu and NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) brought up the allegations and called for an independent investigation by the Control Yuan’s National Human Rights Committee.
In the second national report on investigations regarding the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, there were eight issues related to forced evictions and relocation, housing justice and land expropriation, Chiu said.
The National Human Rights Committee had on Aug. 1 discussed whether to investigate the railway relocation project, Chiu added.
Chu said that following an investigation in 2013, the committee asked the Tainan City Government to improve communication with residents and report on its progress every six months.
However, the investigation was never concluded, she said.
Chiu asked Chu whether she agreed with the argument by the Taipei Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct that officers were empowered to use force to restrain protesters in accordance with Article 19 of the Police Power Exercise Act (警察職權行使法).
The article stipulates: “The police may bring a person under control if he/she ... [is] being insane or drunk to the degree that makes restraint necessary in order to avert a situation that may endanger his/her life or prevent danger to the life or health of another person.”
Chu said there was “room for discussion on the issue” and that she would bring up the issue with the committee.
Chen said there were also concerns that during the protest, after a scuffle broke out between police and protesters, two male officers allegedly forced a female student to the ground.
“Is that not a clear violation of human rights and the principle of proportionality?” she asked.
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