Relatives of 228 Incident victims yesterday called on the government to follow through on its proposal to rename the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) Memorial Hall and remove its authoritarian symbols as part of efforts to address past human rights violations.
Following the Ministry of Culture’s announcement on Saturday that it is working on a bill to reinvent the hall — that might rename the Taipei landmark and remove Chiang’s statue from it — a number of families of the victims of the incident held an impromptu news conference at the hall yesterday to express support for the changes.
Chiang was primarily responsible for the mass casualties of the 228 Massacre, but the former president has been “deified and enshrined in a massive imperial tomb,” which is an insult to those killed and their relatives, Memorial Foundation of 228 chief executive officer Yang Chen-long (楊振隆) said.
“The ubiquity of Chiang statues is unbearable for families of the victims, who know perfectly well Chiang’s role in the death of their relatives,” Yang said.
It is imperative to cease the glorification of Chiang so he can be judged for what he did, he said.
“High-school students donning Nazi costumes [in Hsinchu City last year] sparked international criticism, and we hope the same standards are applied to [the worship of Chiang],” Yang said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) criticized the ministry, saying that the changes would cause social division, but the nation cannot redress the consequences of the KMT regime without bringing about transitional justice, he said.
Ou Yang Hui-mei (歐陽煇美) said her father, Ou Yang Wen (歐陽文) — a student of renowned painter Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波) — was wrongfully imprisoned for 12 years for participating in protests.
She criticized the decades-long public commemoration of Chiang despite the brutality of the massacre, and said the memorial hall could be repurposed into an exhibition center to display artworks created by victims and their relatives.
The government has not identified any perpetrators of the massacre although research published by the foundation in 2006 found Chiang primarily responsible for the massacre, foundation standing director Lin Li-tsai (林黎彩) said.
“There are only victims [of the 228 Incident], but there is no perpetrator. Conflicts cannot be resolved without historical responsibility being understood,” Lin said.
Lin urged the immediate passage of a law on transitional justice, which would lay the legal groundwork for seeking the truth of the Incident and holding Chiang and his accomplices accountable for the massacre.
Lin’s father was killed at a military base in Kaohsiung without a trial, she said.
Foundation standing director Lee Hui-sheng (李慧生), whose grandfather went missing during the Incident, said the removal of merchandise associated with Chiang from the hall was justified.
The commercialization of products associated with Chiang hurts the families of victims, they said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS