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The 228 Incident: Sixty years on - DPP's Hsiao says KMT needs to set the record straight

On the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to avoid oversimplifying the incident by saying that it was the result of government suppression.

Hsiao was referring to a comment by former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at a memorial service on Sunday that "government suppression was the main cause of the 228 Incident."

Leading victims of the incident, their families and other interested parties on a walk to the original location of the Tien Ma Tea Room (天馬茶房) near Taipei Train Station -- where the conflict between anti-contraband officers and locals took place -- Haiso said that although she understood the incident was a huge burden for the KMT to bear, she hoped the party would apologize to victims and their families.

Distributing lily buds to participants during the walk, Hsiao said a return to the site of the conflict that sparked the incident was intended to help people "understand the past, in order to move forward."

In related news, a pro-independence group and its supporters staged a demonstration in Kaohsiung on Tuesday, urging the Kaohsiung City Government to rename the city's Chiang Kai-shek Culture Center.

Members of the Taiwan Southern Society and relatives of victims of the 228 Incident unfurled a banner bearing the Chinese character "Chih" (恥, disgrace) in front of Chiang's statue outside the center.

Leading the crowd in chants of "Murderer Chiang Kai-shek step down," society president Cheng Cheng-iok (鄭正煜) told the media that the Kaohsiung City Government would be neglecting its duty to its citizens if Chiang's statue was not removed.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that the city government would take the protesters' opinions into consideration.
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