Ceremony recalls White Terror

Braving gusty winds, hundreds of representatives of victims and their families yesterday gathered at Machangting (馬場町) -- a former execution ground for political prisoners -- to attend a memorial service and pay homage to those who lost their lives on the site in the 1950s under KMT rule.

From the early 1990s, services have been held twice a year -- once in spring and once in autumn -- at Machangting, adjacent to the Youth Park (青年公園) in Taipei City.

But the service yesterday had greater meaning because it was the first ceremony to take place since Machangting was turned into a memorial park by the Taipei City Government in August.

"Dearly departed friends, spring is not only the season for us to remember you and to pay tribute to you, it also symbolizes the spring for the people and for the nation that is about to come," said Lin Li-feng (林麗鋒), chairman of the association for the handling of political persecutions during the State of Emergency in Taiwan, who was jailed for 15 years starting in 1952.

Lin was speaking in front of a prominent mound in the open field. The mound is said to have been formed by an accumulation of soil, which was used by the executioners to cover the blood shed by their victims.

The White Terror era started in 1949 and lasted for roughly 10 years after the KMT government promulgated the Insurgency Punishment Statute, ordered a string of anti-communist laws and then declared Taiwan to be under the State of Emergency.

During the period, the government launched waves of raids, arrests and interrogations which led to the execution of 4,000 people and the imprisonment of 8,000 others. According to statistics released by the Historic Record Committee of Taiwan Province, more than 20,000 people were persecuted on charges of sedition during the decade.

In 1987, the Victims of Political Persecution Association was founded. The organization, formed by victims, was established with the aim of helping victims help each other after being released from jail. Former prisoners endured tough times after their release, with most doors for employment shut to them and scarce assistance offered.

In 1998, after a long struggle, the association's biggest achievement took place when the government finally agreed to grant compensation to the political victims.

Lin told the Taipei Times that more than 6,000 victims had applied for compensation. He said those who had served two years in prison were entitled to NT$1.8 million, with another NT$200,000 added for each additional year. An amount of NT$6 million is offered to families of those who were executed.

Asked whether they were satisfied with the redress, Wu Shu-pei (吳澍培), head of the Victims of Political Persecution Association, told the Taipei Times that they were not completely appeased, but "it was better than nothing."

"Asking for the reverse of a miscarriage of justice, apologies and financial compensation were the three main petitions put forth by our association. But the government only agreed to partial compensation. We are not overly pleased with how we were treated, but it is better than nothing," Wu said.