The Transitional Justice Commission on Sunday announced that it would investigate the death of democracy and human rights advocate Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), as well as other unresolved cases that were allegedly politically motivated, with the help of tens of thousands of political documents.
Chen was found dead 37 years ago today next to what is now National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Department of Library and Information Sciences building, after having been questioned by Taiwan Garrison Command officers the day before.
Born in 1950 and an NTU graduate, Chen was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University when he returned to Taiwan on May 20, 1981, to visit his family.
The Dr Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation has said that its investigations found that Chen was questioned about overseas students who had allegedly served as informants for the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
The officers questioned Chen about his establishment of a foundation in the US to fundraise for the now-defunct pro-democracy Formosa Magazine, the foundation said.
Although US forensic doctors found signs of torture on Chen’s body, the garrison command claimed that Chen committed suicide, the foundation said.
The justice commission’s investigation of Chen’s case, the murder of veteran pro-democracy campaigner Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) mother and twin daughters in 1980 and other allegedly political cases would be deeper and more specific than what has been done until now, commission Deputy Chairperson Chang Tien-chin (張天欽) said.
The commission is to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the assailants and systems of accomplices during the period of authoritarian rule, he said.
The commission would not only clarify the role of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), but also the complicated structures that made such violence possible, he added.
The commission has reportedly already sought the cooperation of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, which is to provide the commission with documents for investigation.
Media have reported that the commission would begin by selecting 10,000 out of 30,000 documents that it believes merit investigation and pick out any documents relevant to the cases.
Since its official launch on May 31, the commission has received more than 40 letters of appeal from the public, an unnamed government official said.
Most of the letters were written by people seeking redress for injustices, followed by people hoping to remove authoritarian symbols, the source said, adding that the letters show that the public has high hopes for the commission.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said the city “does not tolerate violence” after the Taipei City Council reported death threats over a planned screening today of a documentary on alleged forced organ harvesting in China. The council’s report follows a flurry of similar threats targeting theaters and institutions screening the documentary, titled State Organs, which accuses Chinese officials of harvesting organs from incarcerated dissidents and Falun Gong members. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors who planned to screen the film told a news conference earlier yesterday that the organizers of the screening had received a threat of a knife attack signed
RSS