Flags will fly at half mast today out of respect for the victims of the 228 Incident, and will do so every year on Feb. 28, the Cabinet announced yesterday.
"This is a way for the government to express its condolences to the 228 Incident's victims," Government Information Office Minister Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said at a press conference yesterday.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (
PHOTO: CHIU SHAO-WEN, TAIPEI TIMES
Previously, the flag has only been flown at half mast at government facilities whenever persons of significance died, such as former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Pope John Paul II, or major tragedies occurred, such as the 921 earthquake and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US.
The 228 Incident refers to the military crackdown by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on Taiwanese demonstrators and subsequently on thousands of elite figures in 1947.
Tens of thousands of people died in the process, with many more being jailed and persecuted in the decades that followed.
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