The funeral of veteran human rights and social activist Lynn Miles was held yesterday in Taipei, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and a number of democracy advocates paying tribute to Miles and his work.
Offering a sunflower and a glass of beer while holding Miles’ hand, Tsai expressed gratitude for Miles’ contribution to the nation’s movement for democracy during the White Terror era.
Tsai made a brief stop at the Taipei Municipal Second Funeral Parlor before traveling to Kinmen for campaign events.
Former DPP chairperson Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良), who participated in the democracy movement from the 1970s through the 1990s, remembered Miles.
“Miles worked in the campaign to rescue political prisoners in Taiwan in the 1970s and the 1980s, and helped blacklisted Taiwanese political dissidents living in exile to return home,” Hsu said. “When I served as the DPP chairperson [from 1992 to 1993 and then from 1996 to 1998], he offered a great deal of help in the party’s international campaigns.”
US-born democracy activist Linda Arrigo, former presidential adviser Roger Hsieh (謝聰敏) and former Yunlin County commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) also attended the ceremony.
Miles, who came from the US to Taiwan in the 1970s to study Mandarin Chinese, later became involved in the nation’s democracy movement before eventually being expelled.
He helped provide the names of political prisoners in Taiwan to overseas human rights groups, contributing to international rescue efforts.
Miles passed away in Taipei on Monday at the age of 72.
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