Activists collected more than 400 signatures in support of human rights yesterday to urge the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) to halt its planned transformation of a human rights park in Taipei.
A former military prison and court where hundreds of political prisoners were detained or put on trial during the White Terror, the Jingmei Military Detention Center in Taipei was turned into a human rights memorial featuring exhibitions of Taiwan’s democracy movement, prison cells and former military courtrooms in 2007.
However, the CCA changed the name of the park to “Jingmei Cultural Park” earlier this month and invited artistic groups to use the buildings as offices or performances halls, saying they would be allowed to alter the interior.
The plan was opposed by human rights groups and former political prisoners such as former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former Examination Yuan president Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), who were once detained there.
“We’re not against having artistic groups there, but the groups must fit in with the human rights context and the past of this place,” said Tsao Chin-jung (曹欽榮), a representative from the Truth and Reconciliation Association.
He said the CCA should halt the selection process to find artistic groups to take over the former detention center and push for legislation to protect human rights sites across the country, running them as museums.
“In Europe, former Nazi concentration camps are well maintained and there are all kinds of government-sponsored or privately organized educational programs related to these places because there are laws regarding maintenance and operation of [the] sites,” Tsao said. “We need legislation just like that.”
Chen Chung-tung (陳中統), a political prisoner who was jailed for 10 years at the former Jingmei Military Detention Center, said the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial was an important place for thousands of ex-political prisoners and their relatives.
“It’s also an important part of Taiwan’s history — it should not be destroyed,” he said.
Lawmakers from both the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), dictator Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) great grandson Demos Chiang (蔣友柏), more than 180 former political prisoners and 26 civic groups were among those who signed a petition in support of the activists’ demand.
After meeting with the activists, the CCA released a statement saying that it would “be more cautious in selecting which artistic groups could use the Jingmei Park area,” and hold a public hearing next week, but refused to halt the plan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS