Transitional justice should include investigations and the reopening of authoritarian-era military tribunal cases, the New Power Party (NPP) said yesterday.
“While there is already special legislation passed or in process to recover illicit assets and open government files, more has to be done to ‘clean out the house,’” party spokesman Lee Chao-li (李兆立) told a news conference following a meeting of the party’s Central Policy Committee.
Unlike former East Germany and many other countries which have transitioned away from authoritarian rule, no penalties have been imposed on government officials implicated in past abuses, he said, adding that under draft party amendments to transitional justice promotion legislation, police and other officials who served as an accomplice to abuses or otherwise demonstrated a “lack of constitutional democratic awareness” would be barred from holding public office for at least five years.
The NPP’s proposed amendments would also bolster the investigative powers of a proposed transitional promotion committee, he said.
Progress on the transitional justice promotion legislation bill stalled during the last legislative session, but the Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus has continued to include it on a priority legislation list.
Lee also called for amending provisions of the National Security Act (國家安全法), which forbids reopening cases tried by military tribunals under martial law.
NPP amendments would allow for cases to be retried in a special court for five years following passage, he said, calling for review of the amendments to begin before passage of the transitional justice promotion legislation.
The party also called for swift passage of Aboriginal transitional justice legislation, which was separated from other transitional justice issues during committee review.
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