Bunan people rally against Taitung project

By Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Sat, Feb 07, 2015 - Page 3

Bunan Aborigines of the Hongye people in Taitung County yesterday rallied in front of the Construction and Planning Office in Taipei to protest against the Taitung County Government’s plan to establish a hot spring facility for recreational purposes, citing concerns over the impact the facility would have on local geology and accusing the government of attempting to rob the Hongye people of their land in the name of development.

Hongye tribe representative Iman (伊曼) said the county government in 2003 included 11 development areas on 50 hectares of land belonging to the Hongye and Siali peoples as part of its urban development plan, even though his people had unanimously opposed the plan since it was first proposed in 1986.

Presenting a map that showed the geological makeup of land surrounding the planned development sites, he said the proposed sites are encircled by geologically sensitive areas that were severely damaged by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.

However, Taitung Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) failed to recognize this and during the past week allowed the plan to be submitted to his office for review without any public hearings held in advance, thereby going back on a pledge he made during his re-election campaign last year, Iman said.

In addition, the sites earmarked by the county government are located on plains, the areas most densely populated with Hongye and Siali communities, which have lived and farmed ther since their ancestors first settled in the region. By proposing development in these areas, the government is forcing them out of their homes and their fields, Iman said.

He requested on behalf of his people that the office return the plan so that it can be re-evaluated, and called on the Taitung County Government to heed Article 21 and 22 of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law (原住民族基本法), which states that the government must obtainAboriginal peoples’ consent before undertaking development projects.

Other requests from the Hongye people included that the government exclude the community’s land from the development plan, and greatly reduce the scope of development involving the land of Siali people.

In response to the Taitung County Government, which has said the development plan precedes the enforcement of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law, Citizen of the Earth Taiwan researcher Wu Ju-mei (吳如媚) said the aboriginal communities settled in the region much earlier than when the plan was formulated.

“I believe that assessment committee members from the Department of City Planning will be clear-eyed and clear-minded enough to tell whether this urban development plan was introduced to pander to large corporations or boost local residents’ quality of life,” she said.

Committee members resolved during a negotiation with the Hongye people and the environmental protection group that the Taitung County Government should file an official document with the Council of Indigenous Peoples to assess whether the law applies to the plan, and if it does, the project is to be reevaluated in accordance with opinions gathered at tribal meetings.