President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday in Chiayi County outlined the advances on transitional justice made by her administration during her address at a memorial ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the 228 Incident.
Tsai said her government has made a series of efforts to implement transitional justice, including admitting wrongdoing, issuing apologies to victims of the Incident, launching investigations and paying compensation.
It has passed or amended five pieces of legislation, formed a special Cabinet-level body to promote transitional justice and published four investigative reports on the Incident and the ensuing White Terror era from 1949 to 1987, when Taiwan was under martial law.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
A foundation established early last year responsible for compensating victims of the Incident and the White Terror era has so far accepted claims from nearly 2,000 applicants, she said.
It has paid more than NT$4 billion (US$126.7 million) in compensation to the families of people who had their property illegally confiscated by the government, she added.
Efforts have also been made to declassify previously sealed national security files to learn more about the Incident and White Terror era, Tsai said.
The Political Archives Act (政治檔案條例) was amended last year to require political files categorized as national security information to be declassified instead of being kept confidential, she said.
The revisions, promulgated by the president on Dec. 27 last year and which took effect yesterday, require the declassification of files after 30 years, removing a designation allowing for indefinite classification of documents pertaining to national security or foreign affairs.
In addition to declassifying thousands of political archives from Aug. 15, 1945, to Nov. 6, 1992, the National Archives Administration yesterday vowed to expedite the review of potentially sensitive documents.
In declassifying documents, “the government is not targeting any specific political party. We are doing so to take responsibility for the previous authoritarian regime’s illegal actions,” Tsai said.
Despite these efforts, Tsai said she understood that the “horrible memories and scars” would not go away for the victims and their families, “but we must find a way to coexist peacefully with the past and build an more open society together.”
“We shall never forget the past nor shall we choose not to commemorate the past because we are too afraid to do so,” she said.
The Incident refers to protesters being shot by security personnel on Feb. 28, 1947, at the Governor-General’s Office in Taipei (currently the Executive Yuan compound). The protesters were demanding the arrest of those responsible for the indiscriminate killing of a bystander in an angry crowd on Feb. 27 outside the Tianma Tea House on Nanjing W Road. The crowd had challenged Tobacco Monopoly Bureau officials after one of them hit Lin Chiang-mai (林江邁), a woman selling cigarettes illegally, in the head with his pistol after she demanded that the officials return cigarettes they had confiscated from her.
An estimated 18,000 to 28,000 people were killed during the crackdown, which lasted into early May, according to an investigation commissioned by the Cabinet in 1992.
During the ceremony, Tsai exonerated four Incident victims — Wu Tien-shang (吳天賞), Tu Kuan-huang (杜崑煌), Chiang Chen-yu (江振猷) and Ho Keng-tse (何鏗澤) — by awarding “certificates of restored reputation” to their sons and daughters to redress the state’s wrongdoing.
Also at Wednesday’s ceremony, 228 Memorial Foundation chairman Hsueh Hua-yuan (薛化元) said his foundation would help the families of potential Incident victims file for government compensation by validating their claims.
The opening of sealed files has provided the proof needed to help families applying for compensation confirm that their relatives were victims of the Incident, Hsueh said, adding that the families of more than 4,000 victims have been helped by the foundation.
“We continue to seek the truth about the Incident, not only for the sake of the victims and their families, but for the future. After making sure who should be responsible for the tragedy, we can all move on to create a future together,” he said.
The foundation also completed translations of English and Japanese versions of The Tragedy of 228: Historical Truth and Transitional Justice in Taiwan, Hsueh said.
The publication of English and Japanese versions of the book would allow non-Mandarin speakers to gain a better understand of the history of Taiwan, he said.
Additional reporting by Kayleigh Madjar
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