The Transitional Justice Commission on Wednesday said it had found new material from an independent investigation into the death of democracy advocate Chen Wen-chen (陳文成).
Chen, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) statistics department, was visiting his family in Taiwan when he was taken by the then-Taiwan Garrison Command (TGC) for questioning on July 2, 1981.
His body was found on the campus of National Taiwan University the following day.
The then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government claimed he had committed suicide for fear of being prosecuted for supporting democracy, while his family and friends said he was murdered by the government.
Cyril Wecht, a US forensic pathologist and a former coroner, and then-CMU statistics department chairman Morris DeGroot traveled to Taiwan to conduct an independent investigation.
The new material came from this investigation and were declassifed last month following the passage of the Political Archives Act (政治檔案條例).
They include a series of official documents in which the National Security Bureau and the TGC said they would cooperate on the matter.
The Wecht and DeGroot investigation suggested that the NSB play back a recording of the TGC’s questioning of Chen to his family after removing sensitive information, the commission said.
It was the last time the content of the recording was mentioned in writing, as an attempt by the Control Yuan to start a new investigation in 1994 failed to find the recording and a complete set of transcripts.
The recordings are vital to reconstructing the events that took place on July 2 and 3, the commission said.
The TGC had questioned Chen for 12 hours that day and the process had been peaceful, the commission said.
However, the original recording of the questioning process had never been made available, it added.
While the files indicated that the TGC had made transcripts of the recording, “the recording was nowhere to be found and the transcript was incomplete,” it said.
The commission said it is obliged, per Article 8 of the Political Archives Act, not to make it public, as the material could “significantly affect national security and foreign affairs.”
The bureau said the material could be made public after 50 years from the time they were archived.
The commission said it would conduct interviews and implement other measures to continue the investigation into Chen’s death and present the public with the truth and how people were monitored by authoritarian governments.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS