Human rights groups are to hold a memorial march for the 228 Massacre, they said on Tuesday, urging Vice President and president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to give transitional justice bills a boost in the legislature.
Writing jointly in a news release, the Nylon Chen Liberty Foundation and Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute said that the special memorial march, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, is to mark the 77th anniversary of the incident.
The march is to take place in Taipei and other groups have expressed interest in attending the event, they said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The 228 Massacre refers to a mass shooting of protesters by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on Feb. 28, 1947, that triggered bloody crackdowns on suspected dissidents across the island, inaugurating the White Terror era.
The groups said that they call upon the Legislative Yuan to implement transitional justice, adding that all political parties have a responsibility to deepen Taiwan’s democracy and defend its national sovereignty and human rights.
KMT lawmakers should confront the party’s historical mistakes, return the assets it illegitimately appropriated during the White Terror, and support the repurposing of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, they said.
The group said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should remain true to its stance on sovereignty and progressive values by continuing the party’s support of transitional justice legislation, adding that the Taiwan People’s Party can leverage its crucial minority towards this end.
Legislative efforts to hold persecutors accountable, protect historical sites connected to the White Terror and reform the management of the memorial have all stalled in the legislature, they said.
Breaking the gridlock would go a long way to healing historical wounds and bringing out a reconciliation between the nation’s ethnic groups and political parties, the groups said.
Last year’s partial passage of amendments to the Political Archives Act (政治檔案條例) and Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) were a step in the right direction, but not enough to realize transparency, they said.
The national security establishment and other government offices controlling the archives are urged to follow disclosure rules and not fight the law, the groups said.
“The many unaccomplished tasks of transitional justice is worrying,” they said, adding that the DPP government and legislative caucus should release a roadmap or timetable for transitional justice bills.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS