More than 600 people including those representing 70 non-government organizations took to the streets of Taipei yesterday in memory of the February 28 Incident.
Participants dressed in black attending the "228.0 Memorial Action" march walked through Taipei while the names of the victims were read out. They were led by representatives from the Nylon Cheng Liberty Foundation, the Taipei Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Foundation, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Association of Parent Participating Education in Taiwan.
The 228 Incident was an anti-government uprising in 1947 that resulted in a brutal crackdown by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime. Tens of thousands of people, including numerous Taiwanese intellectuals and elites were subsequently killed or imprisoned.
Photo: Cheng Yu-chen, AFP
Participants walked to the former Tianma Tea House in Datong District (大同), where the incident was sparked 78 years ago. At 2:28 pm, pastor Leonard Lin (林宗正) knelt at the site and put flowers down as a tribute to the victims.
The march then continued to other significant sites of the incident, including the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum -- which used to be a radio station and broadcasted the news of the incident, and ended at the Executive Yuan -- formerly the Chief Executive Office that ordered the crackdown.
At the Executive Yuan, a declaration by the organizers of the march stating the 228 Incident purposefully erased Taiwanese elites was read.
It criticized the opposition, the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party, for what it called "embracing the authoritarian legacy in the democratic system" and for "working with the enemy with the agenda of erasing those pursuing a free Taiwan."
Without societal solidarity or democratic resilience, Taiwan’s hard-earned democracy will be fleeting, the statement said.
It added that commemorating the 228 Incident will help prevent similar tragedies and that healing and forgiveness are only possible when the perpetrators are held accountable.
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