The Transitional Justice Commission yesterday said it is recommending legal amendments that would hold perpetrators of White Terror offences accountable for their actions.
The amendments being mulled are to include the revocation of government stipends and commendations, and that a draft would be completed by May next year, the commission told a news conference in Taipei.
The commission is to probe into declassified national security archives to identify perpetrators, especially the then-heads of state apparatuses who can be charged or disciplined for crimes, commission spokeswoman Chen Yu-fan (陳雨凡) said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
This means those accused of committing crimes would face justice in court, while the internal affairs units of the civil service would deal with public servants whose alleged misdeeds did not meet the standards of a crime, she said.
Mechanisms would be put in place to encourage reconciliation by allowing perpetrators to tell the truth in exchange for leniency or immunity, Chen said.
Although many perpetrators would by now be deceased, the responsibility to bring the past into light still exists, she added.
The commission’s acting minister, Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈), said the commission’s research is focused on the military tribunal system and the political framework of the party-state system.
The single-party state system enabled the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to politicize the bureaucratic system, Yeh said.
The KMT controlled the administration of the country from the national government down to villages, the judicial branch, the education system and the foreign affairs establishment; the latter gave it the ability to affect people living outside the country’s borders, she said.
However, the commission does not have a clear idea of the operational system of domestic surveillance under the authoritarian regime, she said.
National security agencies remain reluctant to disclose the identities of their informants, and the commission is continuing to negotiate with them, she added.
The amendments being drafted would define the perimeters of responsibility for perpetrators, select and empower the agencies in charge of investigations, and establish systems of remedy and other technical guidelines, Yeh said.
The commission has granted 100 of 163 applicants access to the White Terror-era national security archives, it said, adding that requests are granted in all cases in which relevant files can be located.
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) and Deng Chu-mei (鄭竹梅) — the daughter of Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who self-immolated in 1989 in defense of “100 percent freedom of expression” — were among those who filed for archival access.
The commission released the information in the wake of a media report last week that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) was an informant for the KMT in his student days.
Huang confirmed the report and said he would leave the party and not seek re-election.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS