The Transitional Justice Commission might be unable to review 60,567 classified political files from the Martial Law period in the National Police Agency (NPA) archives due to difficulty in the declassification process, a commission member said yesterday.
The commission is in the process of gathering political files from the period, which it hopes to cite in a draft report on transitional justice that it is to complete by the end of next year.
Under the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), the commission should gather, compile and preserve political files relevant to the suppression of democracy and freedom during the authoritarian era.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The commission this year met with the National Security Bureau (NSB), Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the NPA to negotiate the declassification of political files and their handover, the commission member said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
As part of the sixth planned file handover, the Investigation Bureau plans to transfer 30,571 files to the commission, they said, adding that it has so far handed over 7,919, of which 9 percent are classified.
The NSB has 176 classified files that the commission hopes to receive, the member said.
Under archive regulations, before transferring classified files to another agency, individual agencies must first review their classification, but some of the agencies have maintained a “reserved attitude,” affecting the declassification process, the member said.
As a result, more than 60,000 classified files at the NSB and the NPA might not be declassified or cited in the report, they said.
The NSB’s classified files are believed to include information that could lead to the truth about the murder of former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) twin daughters and mother at their Taipei home on Feb. 28, 1980.
As Lins’ house was under close surveillance by police and secret service agents at the time, some believe that the murder was planned by the government as a warning to those involved in the democracy movement.
The NPA’s classified files, preserved at the agency’s office in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正) and two warehouses in Liuzhangli (六張犁), include files on political figures, surveillance operations, Chinese espionage and other national security cases, the member said.
If declassified, they would shed light on how the party-state deployed police resources during the authoritarian era, they said.
With assistance from the commission, the NPA is to digitize and copy about 8,000 political cases before handing them over.
The agency would handle the files in a transparent manner, NPA Director-General Chen Ja-chin (陳家欽) said.
It has hired personnel to deal with the digitization and copying, but the process could take some time due to the number of files involved, he said, adding that after a meeting with commission representatives, the agency took them to the warehouses to look at files.
Most of files from more than a decade ago are only available in paper format and require more processing, as they are fragile, he said.
The commission can contact the NPA’s executive secretary if it finds files that it considers particularly important, he said.
Commission spokeswoman Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said that there are two ways for the commission to access classified files from government agencies.
Agencies can declassify files in their own archives, but if lawmakers pass the proposed political data act, any classified files from more than three decades ago could be declassified unless that is explicitly prohibited by law, she said.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we