Updated: KMT Miaoli County Magistrate Liu Cheng-hung Destroys Crops to Requisition Land Without Permission

UPDATE: Click on THIS LINK to get another report on this destructive land grab by Terry Gou

EVA and I came across this story tonight. On June 9th 2010, caterpillar excavators moved into a track of land owned by local Miaoli farmers to destroy their crops against their wishes. These crops were two months away from harvest. They did this on the orders of KMT Miaoli County Magistrate 劉政鴻（Liu, Cheng-Hung) whilst negotiations were underway between the County Government and local residents over a fair price for the Government requisition of land.

This was despite the fact that the Miaoli County Council passed a resolution stating that the Government could buy the land but only at a fair price agreed to by the owners of the land. Not only were negotiations unfinished but residents were prevented from stopping the caterpillar excavators from continuing their work by hundreds of police who were called in to the scene. These police also prevented the local KMT Legislator 康世儒 from entering the site (5:21 on the video below).

The reason for this forced requisition is that Terry Guo (Hon Hai, Foxconn) amongst others wanted extra land to build(extend?) the Jhunan Science Park since the original area of land allocated for the park was deemed too small, so the extra land below was also included. (This is despite the fact that sufficient land area in an existing science park was readily available). For more information see ... here.

Here is the location:

The County Magistrate responsible, 劉政鴻（Liu, Cheng-Hung), is this man here: (From Wikipedia)

Here is a video of the incident in question with feedback from local residents:



This story came from the Peopo site - media by citizen journalists.

Here is a report of events in Mandarin:

2010.6.9，相信對苗栗竹南大埔的居民絕對是個永難忘懷的日子。

6.8下午，縣府運來水泥拒馬阻斷大埔地區通外道路，並施行交 通管制，當地居民發覺後，緊急連絡立委、議員前來協調，縣府態度強硬不予理會，直到傍晚才開放一條通道供民眾出入。

6.9凌晨三點多，警備 車載來二百多名員警，同時到來的是二十多輛怪手、鏟土車，還有救護車，帶頭者按圖索驥，四處佈置警力與怪手，時間一到同時出動，令不及防備的居民手足無 措，無法相互支援，接到訊息的媒體在外圍即被擋下不得進入。

怪手直接開進休耕或再一個多月就可收割的稻田，或開挖或推土，甚至只是在稻田裡 繞幾圈就開走，部份居民隱忍不敢阻止，按耐不住的居民責罵員警和工程人員，招致而來的是稻禾被鏟除得更徹底，及與員警在稻田旁追逐後，立即被優勢警力制服 受傷，一位憤怒的農民提言要放火燒怪手，換來的是稻田被鏟成平地，幾乎看不到還站立著的稻禾。

一位婦人孤身站在怪手旁不肯離開，遭十幾位 男、女員警包圍，僵持一陣後即被拉走，旁邊一台攝影機持續記錄整個過程，搜證員警好奇地問：「她是你的誰？」，只聽到一句男孩子微弱的聲音：「我母親！」