An amendment to the Political Archives Act (政治檔案條例) proposed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) would allow more files related to the White Terror era to be declassified if the proposal is passed.
The National Development Council’s National Archives Administration has gathered files on political persecution cases on seven separate occasions since 2000, and has uncovered thousands more files each time, Fan said.
“It’s a bottomless pit. So far, more than 77,000 files have been identified and it is still unknown how many are left to find,” she said.
However, since the agencies that produced most of the files, such as the National Security Bureau and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, categorize files from the White Terror era and those from current investigations in the same way, most files remain classified, she said.
The documents are typically kept sealed under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), or they are transferred to the National Archives Administration, but kept partially restricted for 50 years under the Political Archives Act and the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), she said.
“Of those 77,000 cases, 72,000 are restricted and some of their content obscured,” she said.
The restrictions could be due to concerns over personal privacy, or the risk of affecting national security or foreign relations, but the agencies do not provide specific explanations, she said.
Fan, who was a victim of political persecution during the White Terror era, last year applied for access to the files concerning her, but 31 of the 34 files had some information redacted or obscured, she said.
The incident motivated her to propose an amendment to the Political Archives Act, she said, adding that the proposal calls for four key changes:
She said that all permanently classified files should be declassified; all government personnel involved in the oppression of others’ rights should be named; specific reasons should be given for any files that must remain classified or restricted; and the review of disputed files must be improved, with an independent review committee appointed to the task.
Alongside declassifying documents naming those involved in rights abuses, the government should also require those running for political office to voluntarily disclose any such involvement, which is the practice in other countries, Fan said.
It would also be an opportunity for such people to explain and defend themselves, and to describe how their attitude toward human rights has changed, she said.
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