The Taiwan Association of University Professors on Monday urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to order intelligence units to open to victims of political oppression or their kin the files on their oppressors so that they might know their names and identity.
Shielding these people is tantamount to letting the perpetrators escape justice, the group said.
All information given to the Transitional Justice Commission has had the names of individuals involved redacted or omitted, contravening the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), association chairman Hsu Wen-tang (許文堂) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The National Security Bureau and the Investigation Bureau have also said that, according to the National Intelligence Act (國家情報工作法), the names of those involved could be omitted or redacted.
These files should not be classified to protect the ugly truth of what the then-autocratic Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime had done, Hsu said, urging the government to amend the law and remove such contradictions.
Only by delivering justice to the victims or their surviving kin can wounds be healed and lead to forgiveness, the association said.
The goal of transitional justice is for society to be at peace with each other, but such a goal is unattainable if victims do not know who they are supposed to be at peace with, Political Prisoners’ Association honorary director-general Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said.
Intelligence agencies were in open contravention of Tsai’s executive order to make as many files as possible open to the public or available for academic use, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said.
Leaving files classified and shielding the informants’ identities prevent true reconciliation, Fan said, adding that victims or surviving kin should have full access to the files.
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