Human rights advocates and academics yesterday announced a series of events that are to be held in the lead-up to mark White Terror Memorial Day on May 19 and expressed their support for a mass campaign to recall dozens of legislators.
History professor Dai Bao-tsun (戴寶村), a member of the group 519 Combined Action, told a news conference that it would include a protest by civil groups demanding that the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall be changed or shut down, a book detailing Chiang’s dictatorship and his imposition of martial law, and a guided bike tour along the Tamsui River to Dadaocheng (大稻埕).
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said that May 19 was designated as White Terror Memorial Day, as that was the day in 1949 Chiang and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime declared martial law.
Photo: CNA
It also marked the beginning of the end of the Martial Law era, as democracy activists and politicians in 1986 organized a massive protest — called May 19 Green Action — at Taipei’s Longshan Temple (龍山寺), demanding the end of martial law.
Koo Kwang-ming Foundation director Michelle Wang (王美琇) said that the KMT had Taiwan under military control from the late 1940s to 1987, with citizens going on street protests to gain freedom and democracy, but young people now only have a vague understanding of the White Terror era.
“So it is quite laughable for the KMT to propose a referendum opposing martial law rule. If we were under martial law rule right now, could the opposition party have the freedom to organize a referendum and speak out against the government?” she said.
Wang called on citizens to come out and support the recall movement’s signature drive to oust unsuitable KMT legislators, to defend Taiwan’s democracy and safeguard freedom.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS