Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Fcuk1204/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
NEW LAWS PASSED by the legislature stiffen penalties for illegal gravel mining. Under the new provisions, mining without a permit for profit can result in a term of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 500 million NT. Those who then do not restore gravel mining sites can face repeated fines of 100,000 NT to 2.5 million NT.
Mining activities that result in a disaster can result in fines of up to 60 million NT and one to seven years in prison, while mining activities that result in serious injury lead to three to ten years in prison and up to 80 million NT in fines. Finally, mining activities that lead to death can be punished by a minimum of seven years in jail to life imprisonment and fines of 100 million NT.
The new laws are a reaction to a mining case last year in Meinong, referred to in the media as the “Grand Canyon of Meinong.”
With regard to the case, gravel pits were found to be covering six hectares of land, with one pit being twenty meters deep. Prosecutors estimated that 1.3 million cubic meters of gravel was removed and sold to construction companies, for a profit of 300 million NT.
The owners of the land attempted to conceal the illegal mining operation by filling the pits with waste, which included construction materials and industrial waste. This proved a means of further exploiting the land, in that they charged for this means of waste disposal.
The case came to the attention of authorities after local residents complained of the contamination of soil and groundwater from the pits, which had become filled with stagnant water after rain. But questions have also been raised about whether local authorities were already aware of the case and turned a blind eye to it, particularly due to corruption.
A report by the Liberty Times alleged that the group operating the mine was linked to pan-Blue politicians, in that the family of a pan-Blue politician was responsible for the land acquisition. Yet it was apparently the ex-husband of a DPP legislator who was the one who brought in the machinery for the excavations. Likewise, the group of individuals responsible for the excavations has links to organized crime. Reportedly, the son of a village head in Meinong with ties to both the pan-Blue and pan-Green camps sought to acquire the land, but after this failed, he sought to take revenge on the landowners. At the time news of the case broke, however, both DPP and KMT politicians attempted to allege that the other side was responsible for corruption.
It is to be seen if stiffening penalties is sufficient to prevent further gravel mining cases. Indeed, the problems at hand may be structural, in that for such illegal activity to take place, this may require links to local government authorities. At the same time, it is probable that both political parties intend to frame themselves as tough on illegal wrongdoing ahead of elections, without necessarily taking the steps that would root out such links.
Indeed, at the time of the “Grand Canyon of Meinong case,” fines of one million NT and two million NT imposed in January and April were not sufficient to stop illegal gravel mining, which only came to an end in July. As such, it is to be seen whether simply increasing punishments is enough.