Hundreds of "White Terror" victims and their relatives yesterday launched a protest in front of the Executive Yuan, demanding equitable and fair treatment in the awarding of compensation for their unjust persecution during one of the darkest periods of Taiwan's history.
It was the second protest of its kind since the government established a special foundation with NT$10 billion in funds last December to handle the affair. The foundation was set up according to the terms of a law passed in May last year covering the disbursement of compensation for people who were persecuted during the so-called White Terror period.
The White Terror has come to be known as a period of severe repression in Taiwan's history when the government cracked down on numerous kinds of social movements under the directive of suppressing communism. Although details are often sketchy, it is commonly held to have begun in the early 1950s and continued until shortly before the lifting of martial law in 1987. Some 5,000 people are believed to have been executed and another 10,000 imprisoned during the period, according to justice ministry figures, though other sources claim the crackdown had as many as 90,000 victims.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lawmakers from the DPP and the New Party were joined by New Party presidential candidate Li Ao (
The main point of yesterday's protest was the calculation of the compensation amount for White Terror victims and relatives, ranging from NT$6 million at the highest to a basic level of NT$100,000. It is supposed to be calculated according to penalties meted out or jail terms served, but the victims' group said the amounts on offer were far inferior to the package put together for victims of the 2-28 Incident.
Former DPP lawmaker Hsieh Tsung-ming (謝聰敏), who originally proposed the compensation legislation, lashed out at the Executive Yuan.
"All Cabinet members should be re-educated to improve their understanding of the law, since it mandates compensation according to the model set for victims of the 2-28 Incident."
The 2-28 Incident refers to a series of islandwide massacres conducted by newly arrived KMT soldiers from the mainland, which began around Feb. 28, 1947 and killed an estimated 20,000 people.
Known as the "Martial Law-Enacted Period Political Events Handling Association" (戒嚴時期政治事件處理協會), the protest's organizers pointed out that the government was initially willing to give each White Terror victim only half of the compensation that 2-28 Incident victims were awarded. A 2-28 Incident victim jailed for eight years and three months qualifies to receive NT$5 million in compensation, while a White Terror victim needs to have served a jail term of ten years to get the same amount, they said.
"Only in August did the government give some ground and raise the compensation amount to around 70 percent of that for a 2-28 Incident victim," they said, adding that this was still not enough.
Kuo Hui-ling (郭慧玲), secretary general of the association, said she would continue the struggle for parity. "The association will go on with its campaign to help the White Terror victims get what they deserve.
"Our future efforts will be focused on the two main agencies responsible for this issue -- the Ministry of National Defense and the foundation established by the government," Kuo said.
According to an investigative report produced by the Historical Research Commission of Taiwan Province (
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification