Sat, Sep 23, 2000 page3

• 228 memories being brought to surface

  DARK PAST A city councilor was led yesterday through Wanfang in Taipei to the suspected burial site of perhaps 20 victims of White Terror persecution

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  Walking around a corner of the house to the backyard, Chen Tsan-sheng (陳讚生) pointed to the hill covered with tall weeds and trees next to the Hopei Public Graveyard (河北公墓) in Wanfang, Wenshan District, Taipei.

  "Here we are," said Chen, 65. He was leading DPP City Councilor Ko Chin-sheng (柯景昇) and a group of reporters, city officials, historians and local residents on a mission to find three burial sites which are reported to contain the remains of over 20 victims of the 228 Incident and the White Terror era of martial law.

  The 228 Incident was a brutal military crackdown on civilian protests that broke out on Feb. 28, 1947 against the KMT administration on Taiwan. The actual number of people killed and missing remains unknown, but some have placed the figure in the tens of thousands.

  

  Wanfang resident Chen Tsan-sheng points to a hill, where he claims the remains of 18 White Terror victims were buried in 1949.

  PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

  During the White Terror period from 1949, when the KMT forces lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists, to 1987 when martial law was lifted, thousands of Taiwan's most prominent citizens and leading intellectuals were dragged from their homes to be killed or to vanish without explanation as the KMT waged war against Taiwan's native, Japanese-educated intelligentsia.

  Councilor Ko visited the site in Wanfang in response to a petition filed by Chen and 10 other local residents who said they would like to see the city government make an effort to identify the remains and re-bury them in a cemetery to ease the trauma left over from the period and help local residents who personally witnessed the tragedies to come to terms with the past.

  "We're more than happy to offer what we know and we hope we can help the city government to unlock this half-century-old mystery," Chen said.

  "Our appeal is simple: we need to know who they were. They don't deserve to be here, abandoned in such wasteland," he said.

  Chen Chin-fa (陳金發), 71, who was an 18-year-old coal carrier when the killings took place in 1949, echoed Chen Tsan-sheng.

  "Many people have mused that the frequent car accidents here over the years have had something to do with the wandering spirits of the dead," he said.

  According to Chen Tsan-sheng, at least four people were buried in the backyard of the family house of 61-year-old Weng-kao Chi-tzu (溫高吉子), 18 more next to the Hopei Public Graveyard, and one more in a unused rice field next to the cemetery. Weng-kao, who has been living in the house for over 30 years, said she was at first frightened after she moved in.

  "But now it doesn't bother me any more, because after all, I'm not the one who killed them," she said.

  Chen Hsi-chun (陳溪圳), 68, recounted what happened on the day of the tragedy over 50 years ago.

  "It was a nice spring day. I was plowing my rice field when I heard several gun shots like I usually did. I thought they must have come from the soldiers of the nearby Chingyuan military camp. They usually fired at birds," Chen said. "The next thing I saw, however, was soldiers attempting to get rid of blood stains from their soles and a man lying in a pool of blood. His body was carried in a cart to the burial site the next day."

  Since people's accounts of events varied yesterday, Yale Lu (呂永昌), secretary-general of the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum (台北二二八紀念館), suggested they first obtain approval from the land owner, reportedly the Chianghsi Province Association, before excavating the remains and proceeding to identify the deceased.

  Chen Wei-yuan (陳威遠) of the Council of Archives of Taipei (台北市文獻委員會) under the city's Bureau of Cultural Affairs (文化局) said the council will hold a forum in the near future and will invite local residents to shed more light on the incident.

  The Funeral Management Section (殯葬處) under the city's Bureau of Social Affairs (社會局) promised to handle burials in the event that DNA testing ultimately fails to identify the deceased.
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