More than 3,000 protesters marched in Taipei yesterday to
protest a government plan to evict dozens of aging leprosy
sufferers and demolish their sanatorium to make way for a new
subway line.
The Losheng Leprosy Sanatorium, in the Taipei suburb of
Hsinchuang, was built in 1932 to quarantine leprosy patients,
cutting them off from family and society.
Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, can cause progressive
damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Effective treatment for
it began to appear only in the late 1940s.
The sanatorium once housed some 1,000 patients. Taiwan
authorities recently relocated all but a few dozen of the
sanatorium's 300 remaining sufferers to prepare for the compound's
demolition to make way for the subway line.
But about 45 patients have refused to be moved, saying the
spacious compound covered by a wide canopy of trees is their
home.
Their cause has won the support of many medical workers.
"We are ashamed by the rude treatment to a group of aging people
who have lived a life of calamity," said Chen Chih-wei, a protest
leader.
The Taiwan authorities agreed last week to put off the
demolition plan until the government could find a way to reroute
the subway line.
Residents have also staged numerous demonstrations protesting
the long delay in the subway linking Hsinchuang to downtown
Taipei.
(Shanghai Daily April 16, 2007)