Mass Protest in Taiwan over Young Conscript’s Death
AFP
August 3, 2013
More than 100,000 Taiwanese people took to the streets Saturday in protest over the death of a young conscript who was allegedly abused in the military.
Singing a Taiwanese take on the revolutionary song “Do you hear the people sing?” from the hit musical “Les Miserables”, protesters rallied at a square near the presidential office in Taipei, mostly dressed in white — a colour symbolising truth in local culture.
It was the second mass protest since Corporal Hung Chung-chiu died of heatstroke on July 4 — apparently after being forced to exercise excessively as punishment for taking a smartphone onto his base — just three days before the end of his compulsory year-long military service.
About 30,000 people demonstrated outside the defence ministry in the capital on July 20, according to Citizen 1985, an activist group that organised the protests.