Historians and human rights groups recently asked the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to put more effort into finding out the truth behind murders and other incidents that occurred during the martial-law era under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
They also urged leaders of the KMT and its ally the People First Party (PFP) -- some of whom were high-ranking officials during the martial-law era -- to tell the truth in order to provide comfort to the relatives of people involved in the incidents.
"The dictatorial era has been over for more than a decade and Taiwan has experienced democratization," said Peter Huang (
Bruised and battered
"Moreover, those who should take responsibility for those incidents have neither been identified nor punished," Huang said.
Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of the death of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a dissident who arrived in Taiwan on July 2, 1981 from the US to visit his family. His bruised and battered body was discovered on the campus of National Taiwan University after he had been detained and interrogated by the Taiwan Garrison General Headquarters.
Some human rights advocates and human rights lawyers attended a conference Friday to discuss achieving justice. They also held a memorial for Chen yesterday.
White terror
Participants mentioned several well-known incidents, including the murders of former DPP party leader Lin I-hsiung's (
"Some core members of the former KMT authority are still active in politics, especially KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"They made a big fuss to the international community and even urged the US government to find out the `truth' of the assassination attempt on the president and vice president, but those two people were the ones that refused to assist the international community in investigating the truth behind Chen Wen-chen's death," Lee said.
"Every time the grassroots -- the Taiwanese people -- ask for redress concerning these historical incidents, members of the former KMT authority and even many members of the media just say that we should forget those historical tragedies and not arouse ethnic conflict," Lee said.
Kenneth Chiu (
"The relatives may not be interested in punishing anyone. However, they still expect to know what exactly happened, and we hope that the DPP government can enhance its efforts in determining the truth," Chiu said.
President Chen Shui-bian (
No revenge
However, when the two were asked last year if they would help make public unclassified documents concerning incidents that occurred under totalitarian rule -- especially their own case -- both said that they would not take advantage of Chen's being head of state to put pressure on the judiciary system.
"The real meaning of our promise of judiciary reform is not to punish those who organized the conspiracy or who executed the order to hurt us," Wu said.
"Instead of focusing on revenge, the mission we should carry out is to improve the efficiency and quality of all judges and prosecutors, and ultimately build people's trust in the judiciary system," Chen Shui-bian said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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