A rights advocate yesterday said that a 2010 request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) not to criticize China only made him want to speak out even more.
“You don’t typically tell an activist to be quiet on a subject of human rights. You know, it’s just a terrible idea,” Oslo Freedom Forum founder Thor Halvorssen told a news conference in Taipei before the start of this year’s half-day forum.
Halvorssen, who is also the founder and chief executive of the US-based Human Rights Foundation, said that the ministry pleaded with him not to say anything negative about China in a conference speech in Taipei 13 years ago.
Photo: Yang Yao-ru, Taipei Times
He said the request was counterproductive, resulting in him rewriting his speech the night before the conference to include more criticisms of China, taking aim at the Chinese Communist Party for being “the most criminal syndicate that violates human rights in the world.”
Ma and his entourage “got up and walked out” five minutes into the speech, he said.
In a meeting on Monday with Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), Halvorssen said that he was kicked out of his hotel in retaliation for the speech.
That led Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers to demand that Ma apologize for his administration’s alleged treatment of Halvorssen.
Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) on Tuesday said that Halvorssen had been clear in his recounting on Monday that it was the ministry and not Ma who had asked him about his speech in 2010.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it respects Halvorssen’s personal remarks and views, but has no further comment on the matter.
The Oslo Freedom Forum is a series of international human rights conferences launched by the Human Rights Foundation in 2009.
The conferences aim to bring together notable people, including former heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, prisoners of conscience and other public figures to network and exchange ideas about human rights and exposing dictatorships, its Web site says.
This year’s speakers in Taipei included Cuban freelance writer Abraham Jimenez Enoa, who has written for the Washington Post and cofounded the online magazine El Estornudo, one of the first independent Cuban outlets dedicated to literary journalism; Dalia Hatuqa, a journalist specializing in Israeli-Palestinian affairs, regional Middle East issues and US foreign policy; and Mzwandile Masuku, a Swazi human rights lawyer and the son of late prominent opposition leader Mario Masuku.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS