Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taipei police rough up Chen supporters outside presidential office building (Photos)

Michael Richardson

Officer 190 is infamous among the demonstrators as the meanest policeman.

As members of the Taiwan Justice Rescue Force step up their campaign to free imprisoned Chen Shui-bian they become targets of police determined to squelch their protests. On Friday, Aquia Tsay, Taiwan’s leading democracy advocate was forced to the ground after being placed in a chokehold at the Taipei Railway Station during a demonstration. Meanwhile, over at the Republic of China in-exile presidential office building, another group of Chen supporters was assaulted by police.

Taiwan Justice Rescue Force demands immediate release of Chen Shui-bian (Photos)

Michael Richardson

The Taiwan Justice Rescue Force held a sidewalk news conference on the last day of their march around Taiwan

On the final day of a month-long march around the island the Taiwan Justice Rescue Force held a news conference at New Taipei City. The marchers wanted the immediate release of imprisoned Chen Shui-bian, the resignation of Ministry of Justice officials and prosecutors, and the enactment of a jury system.

Led by Aquia Tsay of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and Rev. Cheng Kuo-chung of the Taiwan Justice Action Church and Rev. Lyim Hong-tiong of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, the group took to the streets to get out their message.

Mass arrest of Tibetans in connection with self-immolations

Phayul.com

Tibetans and foreign supporters carry photos of self-immolators during the final day of the four-day solidarity campaign in New Delhi on Febraury 2, 2013. (Phayul photo)

DHARAMSHALA, February 8: In a first of its kind mass arrest in connection with the ongoing wave of self-immolation protests in Tibet, Chinese authorities have arrested 70 Tibetans in eastern Tibet.

Chinese state media Xinhua on Thursday cited police in the Malho region as saying that the “criminal suspects” were captured in connection with a “string of self-immolations that have occurred since November 2012.”

The rallying cry inside Democracy Camp was to free Chen Shui-bian (Photos)

Michael Richardson

My trip to Taiwan to investigate the fairness of Chen Shui-bian’s trial coincided with a month-long march around the island by the Taiwan Justice Rescue Force. The motivation for the march was to bring attention to the case of Chen Shui-bian, the imprisoned former president of the Republic of China in-exile.

The month-long march by the Taiwan Justice Rescue Force concluded with Democracy Camp, a four-day encampment outside the presidential office building in Taipei. A visit inside the protest compound was in order.

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