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Participants in Kaohsiung Incident band together

Vice President Annette Lu waves a flag during a parade in Taipei yesterday marking the establishment of the Kaohsiung Incident Comrades Association. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

Victims of and participants in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident yesterday formed the Kaohsiung Incident Comrades Association to strive for long-lasting peace and security.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who was jailed for her role in the human rights rally which led to a crackdown by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), yesterday led the formation of the association.

Lu said the "defensive referendum" to be held on March 20 is to ensure Taiwan's peace and security.

The Kaohsiung Incident (美麗島事件) occurred on Dec. 10, 1979, as the KMT government imprisoned participants in an anti-government parade organized by Formosa magazine. The crackdown is also known as the Formosa Incident.

Speaking at the headquarters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lu said those who were involved in the incident helped achieve democratization and the realization of human rights in the last century; but for the new age, participants have repositioned their roles to continue protecting the peace and security of Taiwan.

"Although the mission of the Kaohsiung Incident to help bring about press freedom and other democratic initiatives has been completed, Taiwan still faces an incessant political and military threat from China. There are still 496 Chinese missiles pointed at Taiwan and the number is likely to grow to 650 by 2005," she said.

Lu said intelligence indicated these missiles are aimed at the country's major political and military institutions.

"While the world now is engaged in the anti-terrorism campaign, China's 496 missiles aimed at Taiwan have become evidence of China's possession of weapons of mass destruction and that China is actually the country developing state terrorism," she said.

"Therefore, the defensive referendum which President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has proposed is to remind the people of Taiwan as well as the world the urgency of this military threat from China," Lu said.

She said more than 10 governing bodies, including the European Parliament and the US House of Representative, have passed resolutions demanding that China dismantle the missiles and that the people of Taiwan should enjoy the right of peace as guaranteed by the UN.

Lu said that the government will initiate a series of activities to campaign for peace and to appeal for international support for the referendum. The government will also dispatch a corps of "Peace Ambassadors" to the UN to promote the campaign.

DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), a lawyer for the victims of the Kaohsiung Incident, read a declaration of the establishment of the association yesterday, saying, "Victims, defense lawyers and the families of the victims have devoted their lives to Taiwan's democracy in the past.

"Today, as we are here to form the association, we want to start the mission of `saving Taiwan with peace' to protect our homeland," it said.

DPP Legislator Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏), who was also imprisoned for involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident, urged victims of the crackdown to reinvigorate the spirit of 1979, saying people must brave challenges and difficulties to insist on holding the referendum and fighting for peace and democracy.

"The spirit of Taiwan people helped to end the KMT's decades-long authoritarian rule. It could also terminate the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party," Chang said.
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