TAIWAN NES 16 Apr. 2007


Hansen patients and supporters participate in a rally held on April 15, 2007, in Taipei to urge the government not to tear down the Losheng Sanatorium.
為保存台北縣新莊樂生療養院，「全台鬥陣挺樂生」大遊行四月十五日在台北市舉行，漢生病友與支持者一同走上街頭，爭取保留樂生療養院。



Hansen patients and supporters participate in a rally held on April 15, 2007, in Taipei to urge the government not to tear down the Losheng Sanatorium.
為保存台北縣新莊樂生療養院，「全台鬥陣挺樂生」大遊行四月十五日在台北市舉行，漢生病友與支持者一同走上街頭，爭取保留樂生療養院。

Activists march to save Losheng

By Hermia Lin
Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

An estimated 5,000 advocates and students gathered and marched in Taipei City yesterday to demand more understanding and human rights toward patients of the Losheng Sanatorium (樂生療養院).

With yellow banners tied to their foreheads or elbows that read "Save Losheng; fight against eviction," thousands of activists, including more than 100 civil groups that devote themselves to helping disadvantaged minorities, shook the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, where the march started, with a burst of vitality and righteousness that the compound has seldom felt before.

One of the sponsor organizations, the Youth Union for Lepers Rights, told reporters that all of the 5,000 banners were distributed to participants of the march.

Acknowledging fault

Campaign leaders said the purpose of the march was to call on the ruling government to acknowledge its faulty policy in selecting the 77-year-old sanatorium in Sinjhuang, Taipei County as the site to construct power plants as part of the Sinjhuang MRT project.

"Patients suffering from leprosy have long been stigmatized in our society due to a lack of understanding toward the low-infectious disease.

The government should restore patients' reputations and prevent them from being evicted - or to at least guarantee them their living rights," the campaign said in a statement.

It added that the government should name the sanatorium as a historical relic, and make the sanatorium a human rights park that serves the interests of the patients' life, social education, and local development.

More than 15 leprosy patients joined the march by riding on electric motor bikes.

Another five patients were on a flat truck waving to the crowds. "Thank you everyone. We do not feel alone anymore," Li Tien-pei, one of the leprosy patients said.

Over 100 paraders marched on their knees all the way to Ketagalan Boulevard, dragging gasoline cans that contained burning coals to demonstrate their will and resolution to safeguard the sanatorium.

They said that their kneeling down is not to beg for sympathy, but rather an attempt to understand the hardships that the patients have lived with all their lives. "We use a position that is closest to the earth to reflect how a society should treat the existence of each individual," they added.

Dancers from the Tsai Jui-yeh Dance Foundation covered themselves in white fabric and jumped into gasoline cans to mimic the pain of leprosy patients who cannot move freely.

Friday Wu, one of the guardians of the sanatorium, told Taiwan News that the reason so many people were expected at the march is because they are still worried that the sanatorium would be demolished.

"Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) Saturday paid a visit to the sanatorium to urge the patients to relocate to another hospital. He even said 'let all of the leprosy patients cast votes on whether to stay or not.' Su's empty promise cannot stop Chou from trying to demolish the sanatorium," Wu said, adding that politicians attempting to make fools of people is shameful.

Premier's promise

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said last week that the government will preserve as much of the sanatorium as possible while minimizing the impact on the MRT project. Su said that the Cabinet will help preserve as much as 90 percent of the compound.

The previous plan mapped out by the Department of Rapid Transit Systems under the Taipei City Government called for demolishing 60 percent of the site.

Liu Hsiao-shen, a junior high school teacher from Meinung in Kaohsiung County, said that the sanatorium controversy is a clear example of a majority using violence to suppress a minority.

Liu added that he and other 40 southerners departed from Meihung at 5:30 a.m. yesterday morning to take part in the rally.

Activists marched along Zhongshan South Road in downtown Taipei, passing through the Legislative Yuan and stopped on Ketagalan Boulevard. The march ended at near 6 p.m. yesterday evening with all of the participants of the march bowing down to the leprosy patients.