TAIPEI (AFP) - Thousands of slogan-chanting opposition demonstrators took to the streets of the Taiwanese capital in the second rally in a week protesting against President Chen Shui-bian.
Protesters complained that the independence-leaning Chen is preoccupied with cross-strait matters and ignores pressing livelihood issues closer to home.
"There are a string of problems challenging this country such as government corruption and serious credit card and cash card payment defaults. They need the leader to show his concern," said opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou, head of the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist) party.
"But instead what did he do over the past month? He scrapped the National Unification Council."
Chen last month sparked fresh tension with rival China when he said the advisory council and guidelines on eventual reunification with the mainland would cease to function.
"He will have to pay for this if he continues to ignore the priority concerns of our fellow countrymen," Ma said, as the crowd waved national flags.
At the end of 2005 Taiwan's outstanding credit card debt amounted to 460 billion Taiwan dollars (14.15 billion US) with a further 290 billion on cash cards, according to a recent report by Fitch Ratings.
"We oppose scrapping the National Unification Council, a move has led to tensions across the Taiwan Strait," James Soong, head of the People First Party (PFP) which is the second biggest opposition group and also organized the rally, told the crowd.
"We want peace! We don't want war!" Soong joined the crowd in a chorus of slogans voicing the opposition's fears that a planned arms deals might lead to an arms race with China.
Supporters from the KMT and several groups battling the government's plan to purchase weaponry from the United States for billions of US dollars also took part.
Police declined to estimate the crowd size Sunday. The PFP put the turnout at 40,000 but witnesses believed it was lower.
Tens of thousands of KMT and PFP supporters also marched the previous week in a similar protest.
Chen himself joined a huge rally in Taipei on Saturday to protest at China's military threats against the island. The demonstrators pledged to safeguard Taiwan and called on China to dismantle the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting it.
China and Taiwan separated after a civil war in 1949, in which the communists beat the nationalists who fled to the island. Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has threatened to retake it by force if it formally moves towards independence.
Unlike Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the PFP and KMT favour improved ties with Beijing.
Sunday's demonstrators also demanded the truth behind the mysterious election-eve shooting of Chen, which happened on the same day two years ago.
The opposition suspects that Chen staged the shooting, in which he was slightly injured, to win sympathy on the day before the 2004 presidential poll -- a charge rejected by Chen's
Chen won by a razor-thin 0.22 percent margin, beating the KMT's then chairman Lien Chan.
Police who ended their probe last August concluded that a man called Chen Yi-hsiung had shot and wounded Chen and his running mate Vice President Annette Lu when they were campaigning in the southern town of Tainan on March 19, 2004.
Ten days after the shooting, Chen Yi-hsiung was found dead in a fishpond near Tainan. Police said he killed himself out of remorse, a finding categorically rejected by the opposition.
"The two bullets have changed the election result. And the official investigation is an international farce," Ma said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006031...rZvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
Protesters complained that the independence-leaning Chen is preoccupied with cross-strait matters and ignores pressing livelihood issues closer to home.
"There are a string of problems challenging this country such as government corruption and serious credit card and cash card payment defaults. They need the leader to show his concern," said opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou, head of the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist) party.
"But instead what did he do over the past month? He scrapped the National Unification Council."
Chen last month sparked fresh tension with rival China when he said the advisory council and guidelines on eventual reunification with the mainland would cease to function.
"He will have to pay for this if he continues to ignore the priority concerns of our fellow countrymen," Ma said, as the crowd waved national flags.
At the end of 2005 Taiwan's outstanding credit card debt amounted to 460 billion Taiwan dollars (14.15 billion US) with a further 290 billion on cash cards, according to a recent report by Fitch Ratings.
"We oppose scrapping the National Unification Council, a move has led to tensions across the Taiwan Strait," James Soong, head of the People First Party (PFP) which is the second biggest opposition group and also organized the rally, told the crowd.
"We want peace! We don't want war!" Soong joined the crowd in a chorus of slogans voicing the opposition's fears that a planned arms deals might lead to an arms race with China.
Supporters from the KMT and several groups battling the government's plan to purchase weaponry from the United States for billions of US dollars also took part.
Police declined to estimate the crowd size Sunday. The PFP put the turnout at 40,000 but witnesses believed it was lower.
Tens of thousands of KMT and PFP supporters also marched the previous week in a similar protest.
Chen himself joined a huge rally in Taipei on Saturday to protest at China's military threats against the island. The demonstrators pledged to safeguard Taiwan and called on China to dismantle the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting it.
China and Taiwan separated after a civil war in 1949, in which the communists beat the nationalists who fled to the island. Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has threatened to retake it by force if it formally moves towards independence.
Unlike Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the PFP and KMT favour improved ties with Beijing.
Sunday's demonstrators also demanded the truth behind the mysterious election-eve shooting of Chen, which happened on the same day two years ago.
The opposition suspects that Chen staged the shooting, in which he was slightly injured, to win sympathy on the day before the 2004 presidential poll -- a charge rejected by Chen's
Chen won by a razor-thin 0.22 percent margin, beating the KMT's then chairman Lien Chan.
Police who ended their probe last August concluded that a man called Chen Yi-hsiung had shot and wounded Chen and his running mate Vice President Annette Lu when they were campaigning in the southern town of Tainan on March 19, 2004.
Ten days after the shooting, Chen Yi-hsiung was found dead in a fishpond near Tainan. Police said he killed himself out of remorse, a finding categorically rejected by the opposition.
"The two bullets have changed the election result. And the official investigation is an international farce," Ma said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2006031...rZvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--