Academics and experts yesterday clashed over measures to promote transitional justice at a public hearing held by the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in Taipei.
The committee is deliberating a transitional justice promotion act, now that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds a legislative majority for the first time, following the January elections.
Hsieh Chen-yu (謝政諭), dean of Soochow University’s School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, said that the “soft authoritarianism” of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rule under martial law called for a different approach to transitional justice from other nations because the KMT itself had moved in the direction of democratization, including the passage of legislation such as the Act Governing the Recovery of Damage of Individual Rights During the Period of Martial Law (戒嚴時期人民受損權利回復條例), 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) and the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act (二二八事件處理及賠償條例).
Other academics and victims of the White Terror era disagreed, saying that past moves toward transitional justice were partial at best.
“Efforts to reveal the true face of history, rehabilitate victims and open new judicial investigations to call to account offending persons and groups have proceeded like ‘squeezing toothpaste’: passive and partial, if they were done at all,” said Li Fu-chung (李福鐘), a professor at National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History.
Representatives of White Terror victims said that previous legislation stopped short of providing them with full rehabilitation by denying them the right to file lawsuits to overturn unjust convictions in military courts.
“Even though we have received some compensation, this does not constitute true rehabilitation,” Formosan Political Prisoner Association president Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said.
“Given that the government has already ruled that we were unjustly convicted on false charges, it should give us justice,” Tsai said.
While only 96 of more than 7,000 martial law convictions reviewed by the Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts were found to be legally based, compensation provided under the Compensation Act for Wrongful Trials provided only administrative relief rather true reparations, which would explicitly acknowledge governmental wrongdoing, he said.
Articles of the National Security Act (國安法) passed shortly before the lifting of martial law explicitly denied victims the right to appeal military court verdicts after martial law was lifted, overriding provisions of the Martial Law Act (戒嚴法) itself and preventing victims from recovering property unjustly confiscated by the government, Tsai said.
“In beginning to pursue transitional justice, what is most important is preventing abuses,” said Lee Hsun-min (李訓民), a consultant to the KMT’s National Policy Foundation, who criticized the DPP’s proposal as infringing on judicial authority by proposing to invest a transitional justice promotion committee with broad investigative powers.
“This will be a quasi-judicial executive body, totally redundant and existing only for the purpose of violating property rights,” he said, referring to the possibility that such a committee might play a role in appropriating the KMT’s “ill-gotten assets.”
Ming Chuan University professor of public affairs Chi Chun-chen (紀俊臣) said the DPP’s draft should be revised to fully guarantee the transitional justice promotion committee’s independence.
“Because the committee’s investigative powers would turn it into a quasi-judicial body, it is inappropriate to place it under the Executive Yuan, where it could be influenced by the party background of the premier,” he said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
The age requirement for commercial pilots and airline transport pilots is to be lowered by two years, to 18 and 21 years respectively, to expand the pool of pilots in accordance with international standards, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced today. The changes are part of amendments to articles 93, 119 and 121 of the Regulations Governing Licenses and Ratings for Airmen (航空人員檢定給證管理規則). The amendments take into account age requirements for aviation personnel certification in the Convention on International Civil Aviation and EU’s aviation safety regulations, as well as the practical needs of managing aviation personnel licensing, the ministry said. The ministry
RSS