Lung accused of insensitivity

Representatives of victims of the 228 Incident yesterday appealed to the Control Yuan to impeach the director of Taipei's Bureau of Cultural Affairs (文化局), Lung Ying-tai (龍應台), for wrongly portraying the man who masterminded the massacre as a victim in a city-sponsored photo exhibition.

The 228 Incident refers to a brutal military crackdown that followed civilian protests that broke out on Feb. 28, 1947 against the KMT's local administration. The actual number of people killed and missing is still unknown, but some have placed the figure in the tens of thousands.

Control Yuan member Ko Ming-mou (柯明謀) yesterday accepted the group's petition and agreed to conduct the investigation.

Yang Chen-lung (楊振隆), secretary-general of the Taiwan 228 Care Association (台灣二二八關懷總會) and leader of the group, said they are very unhappy with Lung's handling the matter.

"She has done a poor job in both supervising the organization of the event and responding to our calls," he said.

The photo exhibition, called "Mid-Summer Days at Machangting, 1950 -- Contemplation on War, Human Rights, and Peace" (1950仲夏的馬場町 -- 戰爭,人權,和平的省思), which is being held at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum (二二八紀念館) under the auspices of the culture bureau, opened on Aug. 25 and is scheduled to end tomorrow.

It features a collection of once private pictures of those who lost their lives during the "White Terror" era under KMT rule. Among them is Chen Yi (陳儀), the first KMT governor of Taiwan, who ordered the crackdown following the 228 incident.

Chen himself was later charged with treason as a result of a dalliance with the communists as the KMT's rule on the mainland collapsed, and executed by firing squad. A picture of Chen's execution is on display at the exhibition but the group argued that he should not be portrayed as a victim of the White Terror era.

During this period, thousands of Taiwan's most prominent citizens and leading intellectuals were dragged from their homes to be killed or to vanish without explanation as the KMT carried out a "dirty war" against Taiwan's native born, Japanese-educated intelligentsia.

Unhappy with what they saw at the exhibition, on Sept. 1 the group issued a written statement to voice their displeasure.

The bureau responded by saying that it did not hold the event to upset the victim's families but because it wanted to memorialize them. It also reiterated its respect for the curator's professionalism in organizing the event.

Unsatisfied with the response, on Sept. 8 the group held a press conference to deliver a second round of criticism.

"The bureau sets a very bad example by allowing the exhibition to depict the criminal as a victim," said Chuang Sheng-jung (莊勝榮), legal advisor of the association. "He doesn't deserve to be at the exhibition at all because he was the mastermind behind the entire incident."

Yang Chin-yuan (楊金源) of Hualien County agreed. "The exhibition does nothing but stir up already complicated ethnic issues and painful memories," he said.

Yang, 75, was imprisoned at the age of 24 for more than a year simply because he had given food and water to political dissidents.

Jeff Chang (張良澤), a Taipei native, said the KMT simply is not a reliable political party.

Chang's family had to sell part of the family land to bail out their father, who was jailed because he was a well-educated attorney. Although Chang's father escaped death, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail and deprived of his civil rights for a further 13 years.