Taiwan Association for the Care of the Victims of Political Persecution During the Martial Law Period secretary-general Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) has called on the government to declassify important articles and reveal the methods that the military police used to extract confessions.
Tsai’s remarks came in the wake of a recent controversy caused by a military police visit to a civilian’s home over an alleged online sale of classified government documents.
The Ministry of National Defense later apologized for the controversy stirred up by the military police’s handling of the case, saying it would cooperate with a Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office investigation into what happened.
In an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Thursday, Tsai said that the military police headquarters’ actions were reminiscent of the Martial Law period.
The then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime declared martial law in Taiwan on May 19, 1949, which was not lifted until July 15, 1987.
During the 38 years of martial law, numerous people were imprisoned, tortured and executed for alleged sedition and espionage for China.
The military police’s actions are unbecoming and overreaching, Tsai said, adding that the military is still sitting on many important files, including judgements passed on political victims of the era.
It refuses to turn over these materials to academics, victims or the victims’ families so that the truth can be known, Tsai said, adding that it was only due to a concerted effort from multiple victims and their families that the National Archives Administration had consented to return family letters written by victims.
Tsai called on the government to consider amending the Archives Act (檔案法) to allow victims or their families to read through documents, such as the records of interrogations and alleged confessions, so the public could understand the absurdity of the military’s trials.
Tsai also called on the government to change the name of the Compensation Act for Wrongful Trials on Charges of Sedition and Espionage During the Martial Law Period (戒嚴時期不當叛亂暨匪諜審判案件補償條例) to “Reparation Act for Wrongful Trials on Charges of Sedition and Espionage during the Martial Law Period” (戒嚴時期不當叛亂暨匪諜審判案件賠償條例).
“Only through such a change will victims and their families feel that the government is serious in its intent to redress past wrongs,” Tsai said.
The government should also amend the Act Governing the Recovery of Damage of Individual Rights during the Period of Marital Law (戒嚴時期人民受損權利回復條例) and the National Security Act (國家安全法) so that victims or their families would be able to request the government return property or assets seized during the Martial Law period.
Tsai, born in 1933, is a teacher who briefly studied in Japan after his college years. He was allegedly in touch with Thomas Liao’s (廖文毅) Provisional Republic of Taiwan Government, which issued a declaration of independence in Tokyo on Feb. 28, 1956.
He was further implicated as his friend, Lee Sen-jung (李森榮), wrote the phrase: “Devoting myself to the independence movement for the liberation of the Taiwanese people” on paper and was imprisoned in 1962 for 10 years.
Transferred to Taiyuan Prison’s clinic in Taitung, Tsai supposedly opened the doors of the prison in the Taiyuan Prison Incident (泰源事件), but was only given three more years for his participation.
The Taiyuan Prison Incident — considered an uprising by the KMT government, but an attempt for armed revolution by pro-Taiwan independence activists — involved prison guards, inmates and local Aboriginal youths who sought to take over the prison, a nearby radio station and Republic of China Navy ships stationed in Taitung, in the hope of sparking a nationwide revolution.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS