80-year-old sets self on fire in Liberty Square
Written by Writer on Thursday, November 13th, 2008
80-year-old sets self on fire in Liberty Square
TAIPEI, Taiwan — An 80-year-old man was rushed to a hospital in downtown Taipei yesterday after he set himself on fire at Liberty Square where a group of university students are engaged in a sit-in demonstration against police actions during the recent protests over a top Chinese negotiator’s visit.
The man is in critical condition with severe burns to 80 percent to 90 percent of his body, said Pi Yiu-ming, a Taipei City Fire Department officer.
The hospital where Liu was taken was still trying to save him, Pi said.
Politics is the reason the elderly man set fire to himself, said Pi and others at the scene.
Taipei city police officer Lin Chih-cheng said Liu had distributed leaflets at the square expressing his dissatisfaction with the government administration before splashing some type of flammable liquid - possibly gasoline or diesel - on his body and lighting himself.
Liu left a letter at the scene, identifying himself as Liu Po-yien, aged 80, and saying his actions are aimed at showing his dissatisfaction with the visit last week by China’s top negotiator on Taiwan, Chen Yunlin, and the controversial tactics used by police to maintain order at the places where people protested against Chen’s visit.
Liu said in the letter that he joined the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) in 1950, and that he was disappointed with the government’s manner of hosting Chen, who visited Taiwan from Nov. 3-7 for talks with his Taiwanese counterpart on cross-strait exchanges.
The incident shocked the student demonstrators at the square.
Ho Tung-hung, an assistant professor at the Fu Jen Catholic University Department of Psychology, visited the students who witnessed the incident and offered his help to them.
Ho said a witness told him Liu said he came from Nantou in central Taiwan.
The students began their sit-in protest in front of the Executive Yuan on Nov. 6, demanding that President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan apologize for what they called the “rough” tactics used by police to deal with protesters during Chen’s visit.
Police evicted the student protesters from the Executive Yuan’s premises Friday evening because they lacked a permit to demonstrate there in the first place.
The students then moved to Liberty Square, where they have since continued their round-the-clock sit-in protest. They dubbed their drive to push for amendments to Taiwan’s Parade and Assembly Law as a “wild strawberry movement.”
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:43 am TWN, CNA
