Taiwan Church News

3342 Edition

March 21 - 27, 2016

Church Ministry

Political Archives Act, A Key To Start Transitional Justice For Taiwan's White Terror In 1950s

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

From March 12 to 18, an exhibition of Taiwan's political archives from 228 massacre to white terror in 1950s is heldat Libratory - an independent bookstore in Taipei. This exhibition is partially illuminated by the scandalous event of military police's breaking into a New Taipei citizen's house in February, searching for some abolished classified files yet without any search warrant. This absurd and illegal infringement of human rights by military police gives a big shocks to Taiwan society as if the notorious white terror is coming back.

Ms Yeh Hong-ling, former chief executive of Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation, is therefore invited to to host a seminar talking about the unfinished task and historical opportunity of transitional justice in Taiwan. Yeh remarks that the concept of transitional justice should not be limited at 228 massacre only, the more complicated histories and power conflicts of white terror requires to be included.

Yeh reminds the audience that transitional justice is absolutely not an instrument of political revenge, as describedby those conservatives or reactionaries, to annihilate the political opposition. Sensitive to our own history and context, Taiwan has to be very careful in handling those issues related about ethnicity or ideology in order to dissolve the unjust laws and prevent unnecessary stand-off in society, says Yeh.

Yeh suggests the most effective way to start transitional justice and break down legal fortress, inhibiting people to find the truth in Taiwan's white terror, is to urge the legislators to pass Political Archives Act as soon as possible. To learn more about white terror histories and a systematic three-phase report about Taiwan's transitional justice, Yeh also recommends a set of three volumes book,« The Struggle Between Memory And Forgetfulness», published by Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation in 2015.

Translated by Peter Wolfe