Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/23
By: Wang Shu-fen and S.C. Chang
Taipei, Oct. 23 (CNA) A hunger striker protesting the Kaohsiung City government’s demolition of a local
Photo courtesy of self-rescue association.
community for a city renewal project was hospitalized after fainting from dehydration Sunday, his fellow protesters said that day.
Tseng Wei-tang (曾維堂) passed out after a 33-hour hunger strike, and his place was immediately taken over by Yang Feng-kuang (楊豐光), another protester, said Lin Chih-yu (林致宇), spokesman for the Residents Self-Rescue Association fighting for a reasonable resettlement of long-time residents of a market place on Shiquan Road.
The city’s Agriculture Bureau called on the protesting residents to be rational and stop their hunger strike, noting that over the past year numerous meetings have been held with local residents, with only six households yet to vacate for the reconstruction project.
But over 20 members of the self-rescue association said the city government “refused to talk” with them and started a hunger strike on coffins a day earlier, vowing to protect their homes and their human rights.
The market relocation project has been delayed for decades, Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said, adding she could have chosen to do nothing as her predecessors had, but, for the sake of city development and public interest, she must finish the project to solve the problems of flooding, traffic snarl and building a modern fruit and vegetable market in that area. [SOURCE]
