Taiwan missed its chance
It is with great disappointment that I read the Taiwan High Court has rejected the suit filed by Falun Gong practitioners against former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (
Recent developments in international law are advancing towards "universal jurisdiction" for egregious abuses of human rights, regardless of when, where and by whom they were committed. The Belgium law of universal jurisdiction passed in 1993 (with subsequent amendments) spearheads the trend that human rights should indeed trump over issues of sovereignty and nationality.
The arrest warrant case in the International Court of Justice and Augusto Pinochet trial in the UK's House of Lords have stripped acting and former heads of state of their immunity from prosecution, thus affirming that those who commit grave offences against well-established rights and freedoms are accountable for their crimes. The statutes of the recently established International Criminal Court (ICC) also affirm that domestic courts should aid the ICC in prosecuting government officials wherever and whoever they may be. After the appre-hension of Slobodan Milosovic, it seems official title and position is no defense.
Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong members and his campaign to demonize the so-called "evil cult" is well documented worldwide. We have all seen images of how protesters -- both Chinese and foreign -- have been kicked, beaten and brutally dragged away by the police in Tiananmen. This is what we have seen. According to those released by the Chinese government, what happens behind the scenes is even more heinous.
Whatever the merits were for striking the case out, the tyrants live another day with blood on their hands. It is deeply worrying that Taiwan, where the government has sought to establish a state bound by the rule of law and conforming to the norms of the international legal plane, has not seized the Jiang suit as an opportunity to prove itself suitable to that cause.
David Chen
London
We love to love Taiwan
An endless line of people to my left and right sacrificed their Saturday as they stood in line with me holding hands in the hand-in-hand rally. What was the meaning of this day? It was our love of our country that brought us together, our will to express ourselves to the world and our determination to stand up to China's missile threat. We held our fists up and chanted slogans against the missiles, and sometimes in support of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Even though I am an ardent supporter of A-bian, I felt a little uneasy, because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) supporters in the crowd might feel uncomfortable.
"But there aren't any Lien supporters here to protest the missiles, to support Taiwan," I thought to myself, so I need not have worried. This is the problem with our country. We needlessly politicize things. Regardless of whether you support A-bian or Lien, all Taiwanese citizens should be a part of this day because we all love Taiwan.
We were so lucky to be part of that day because we are more free than we were 57 years ago when Taiwan, under martial law, was ruled by a single party. Yet today, as our standard of living increases and we become a more mature and civilized so-ciety, why is there such an extreme ideological divide? Why can't we put aside our differences and come together out of love for our country? Where are the Lien supporters?
In the past, there were two Taiwans. We are reminded of this fact by Taiwanese people's resentment of the fact that they couldn't speak Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) at school and by the suppression of many unique cultures. The bitterness that has lasted through at least two generations won't go away unless we face this painful past and go through a period of truth and reconciliation like South Africa.
I read in the New York Times that a black former bomb-maker is now a police chief in South Africa. He told the truth about his past, he apologized, reconciled the differences with white people and now, at least, they can live together without an extreme ideological difference. I hope one day Taiwanese people can put aside their political differences and come together out of love for their country.
I hope that our human chain will one day completely surround Taiwan, not just the western part. However, the eastern part of Taiwan, like our road ahead, is not smooth and flat. It is bumpy and uphill. But don't worry, our people are very tolerant and we are not dumb.
I hope the people who held political power in the martial law area can tell the truth about their actions during that time and explain their actions. They should apologize for their mistakes, and I am sure the people of Taiwan will embrace them once we get an acceptable explanation.
But we are not going to forget. As with the 228 Incident, we must face the past so the past won't repeat itself and so that we can move forward.
Alfred Tsai
Taipei
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