New moves to publicize White Terror era records were announced by the Ministry of Culture yesterday.
“We have to face history in a matter-of-fact way,” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said at a Human Rights Day event commemorating victims of the White Terror era.
“The government and society often have different versions of White Terror incidents,” he said “We need to present all of the versions without covering up the real situation or glossing over government errors.”
Photo: CNA
Government perspectives from the period were made more accessible yesterday when clear digital files of 232 related court verdicts were posted online for the first time by the ministry.
The files are part of an extensive collection of related documents inherited by the ministry from the Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts in September. The ministry said most of the collection remains in legal limbo, as the cataloging process has just begun.
Meanwhile, oral histories of many people affected during the White Terror era should be posted online by the end of the month, National Human Rights Museum’s Preparatory Office director Wang Yi-chun (王逸群) said.
The office has conducted extensive interviews with 280 people he said, adding that the oral accounts of all consenting interviewees would be made available to the public.
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