Taiwan Church News 3290 Edition March 16 - 22, 2015 Headline News Bid Farewell To Nuclear Power, People Assembly Across Taiwan Urging Renewable Energy Technology Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong An island-wide demonstration, appealing to "Bid Farewell To Nuclear Power, Advocate Renewable Energy Technology", is held at four metropolis in Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taitung on March 14. Being aware of the urgency to build a safe and sustainable Taiwan, tens of thousands of people take on the street to express their anti-nuclear stance. At the demonstration site along the Katagalan Boulevard of Taipei, there are 27 anti-nuclear groups gathered communicating with the crowds their ideas and thoughts about why Taiwan has to abolish nuclear power and how to find a sustainable and renewable energy technology. Within this demonstrating assembly, two aboriginal groups, Indigenous Youth Front(IYF) and Nanao Youth Union, are specially noteworthy. As their appeals to stop the nuclear are not future-oriented but based on their suffering experiences and undergoing power abuse from the government. Taiwan government's decision, choosing the aboriginal lands in Orchid Island and Nanao Township as the dumping yard of nuclear waste in 2017, not only angered the aboriginal people of Tao and Tayal but also went against Aboriginal Basic Acts for negligence of the aboriginals' autonomy rights and welfare. Syamen Womzas, anOrchid Island resident and Tao Aborigine, said the government had promised 12 years ago to remove nuclear waste stored in his hometown but still failed to fulfill. “The government stored nuclear waste on Orchid Island through deception. The residents never agreed to the plan. It is very unfair to us who do not use nuclear energy. We hope that the government relocates the waste soon,” said Syamen Womzas. Piho Yuhaw, an Atayal Aborigine from Yilan’s Nanao Township, expresses his worry that the government are conducting geological survey in order to set up a deep geological repository of nuclear waste on the border of Yilan and Hualien counties, which is close to his home town. Chen Yi-zen, member of IYF and So-shan Presbyterian Church, laments that the aboriginal place like Nanao and Taroko are still secretly designated by the government as the most likely candidates of nuclear waste's dumping yards, even though PCT has stood by the aboriginal movement for over 20 years. "At this very moment, church should take more care about such nuclear-related issues, because the oppressed indigenous people are exposed to the threat from a horrible nuclear catastrophe!". Translated by Peter Wolfe |