Human rights advocates yesterday asked the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to put more effort into uncovering the truth behind murders and other crimes that occurred during the martial-law era under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
The appeal came on the 25th anniversary of the murder of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成). Chen's bruised and battered body was discovered on July 2, 1981 on the campus of National Taiwan University after he had been taken away by the Taiwan Garrison General Headquarters (TGGH) the day before.
Chen was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University who was involved in the Taiwan democracy movement. He had returned to Taiwan from the US to visit his family. His murder attracted significant attention and pressure from the international community.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
At a conference yesterday held to discuss achieving "transitional justice," human-rights lawyer Kenneth Chiu (
The garrison headquarters initially claimed that Chen had committed suicide because he feared being arrested for crimes, but changed its account the following day, saying that he had died in an accident.
US forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who traveled to Taiwan to investigate the case, concluded that Chen's death was caused by his being dropped from the fifth floor while unconscious, and that his death was a homicide.
Chiu cited the names of prosecutors and judges in charge of the Kaohsiung Incident (
He said that those responsible for White Terror incidents such as the murder of former DPP party leader Lin I-hsiung's (林義雄) family have neither been identified nor punished.
"Is the denial of justice a social value of Taiwan?" Chiu asked.
Writer Lin Shih-yu (林世煜) also asked the government not to drag its feet in declassifying documents related to Chen's murder and other incidents in order to uncover the truth and provide justice for the victims and their families.
Meanwhile, Taipei Prosecutor Chuang Chun-jen (莊俊仁), who is currently in charge of the investigation of Chen's murder, was quoted yesterday in a Central News Agency (CNA) report saying that it had been difficult to collect new evidence and find the perpetrators in the case.
"Because the materials relating to Chen's questioning at the TGGH are missing, and key TGGH officials in charge of Chen's case have emigrated to foreign countries, it is hard to make any breakthrough in the case," the CNA story quoted him as saying.
Chen's elder sister Chen Pao-yueh (陳寶月), who has sought an explanation from the government on her brother's murder for more the 25 years, filed a lawsuit in 2001 against former TGGH head Wang Ching-hsu (汪敬煦) and four other officials, in the hope of finding an explanation for his mysterious death.
Chen Pao-yueh said she was disappointed that there had been no progress in the lawsuit. She also said that her family had expected that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would help after he took office, but that they had been disappointed, and so decided to find the truth by themselves.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS