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Future of park honoring political victims unclear

An exhibition to mark the start of the construction of a park commemorating victims of military repression during the Martial Law era opened yesterday at the Presidential Office, but uncertainty remains over whether the park would open to the public in May as the Ministry of National Defense refuses to release the property.

The exhibition, open from 9am to 12 noon, will run through April 13 at the exhibition hall of the Presidential Office.

While the Council for Cultural Affairs has earmarked NT$536 million (US$16.7 million) for the five-year project to support the ministry's relocation of a penitentiary on the lot, the ministry has refused to take action after the legislature slashed this year's budget by NT$15 million.

The Cabinet is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to resolve the issue.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who was jailed at the penitentiary during the Martial Law era, said it was necessary to keep the penitentiary so that future generations would remember the atrocities committed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.

Lu was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the then KMT administration on charges of sedition for a 20-minute speech on human rights she made in December 1979 in the Kaohsiung Incident. She spent nearly five-and-a-half years in jail.

While there are no official tallies for deaths during the Martial Law era, Lu said that 29,000 political cases were recorded, 140,000 people jailed and at least 4,000 people killed.

"One thing is certain: the atrocities were committed by an authoritarian regime and were not caused by ethnic conflicts," she said.

Lu's cell mate, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), said that she still remembered life in prison, where she was allowed only 2 liters of water each day for drinking and washing.

"Taiwan's freedom and democracy are not something that dropped out of the sky and cannot be taken for granted no matter who is in power," she said. "The government is duty bound to safeguard basic human rights and protect the people from living in fear."

Chen was imprisoned for six-and-a-half years.

Recollecting Feb. 28, 1980, Chen said that she saw former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung's (林義雄) mother, Lin Yu A-mei (林游阿妹), at the visitor's room of the penitentiary.

"When I was walking back to the cell, I heard her calling Lin's name and crying out `my son is innocent,'" Chen said.

"I hope that is the last cry of all mothers," she said.
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