Taiwan Church News

3340 Edition

February 29 - March 6, 2016

Headline News

Commemorating 228 Massacre, Tsai Ing-wen Says "We Have To Face Our Dark History!"

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

To commemorate the 69th anniversary of 228 massacre, a memorial service organized by Taipei City Governmentand Caring 228 General Assembly was held at 2:28 p.m. on 28th February, 2016.Ms Tsai Ing-wen, the newly elected Taiwan President, came to attend this service and delivered a speech to the audience. Tsai said, as a country, we should face our dark history because this is a fundamental attitude which is an indispensable part for Taiwan's democratic process.

"We are here to condemn the violence of the state. We want the government to know where its power comes fromand should never turn the gun against the people. Not only the truth of massacre be published, the apology of the government wanted, but also we have to face our traumatic past together. We must learn from this tragic history and never repeat it again!", Tsai said.

When the memorial service officially started and the peace bell ringed, Rev. Lyim Hong-tiong, PCT GeneralSecretary, led the audience to pray to the compassionate and life-giving Lord. "May God never forget this devastatingly tragic history, as this is a history that the Taiwanese people were brutally massacred by the ruling regime. Many Taiwanese elites were also heinously murdered. May God accept these grievous souls who lost their lives and give your compassionate comfort to their suffering families.", prayed Rev. Lyim.

Mr Pan Hsing-shin, representative of families of 228 massacre victims, talked in straight that the project oftranformative justice submitted by the newly-elected government is highly anticipated, as the responsible killers were always absent in the official report released by the Executive Yuan.

Mr Wu Shu-min, chairman of Taiwan Nation Alliance, blamed the opaque histories of 228 event to an thorough brain-wash education by KMT regime. Up to date, there were still lots of Taiwanese did not accept an independent history of Taiwan subjective consciousness, said Wu.

Hsueh Hua-yuan, board director of Caring 228 General Assembly, pointed out that ethnics conflict would nothappen if Chiang Kai-shek was declared to be the chief culprit of 228 massacre according to a 2007 poll. So, the government should not avoid her responsibility to publicize the truth of 228 massacre in terms of ethnics conflict.

Translated by Peter Wolfe