President Lai Ching-te pledged to expedite the opening of political archives to further the implementation of transitional justice on Feb. 28 in Taipei City.
Lai made the remarks during a ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the Feb. 28 Incident, during which he also offered condolences to victims and their surviving family members on behalf of the government.
The incident occurred in 1947 amid protests of unjust treatment and calls for government reform. Military crackdowns in response to these protests claimed the lives of many civilians and ushered in decades of martial law.
The incident had long been a taboo topic, the president noted, adding that it was not until after democratization that the government began to make apologies, offer compensation to victims and their families, and designate Feb. 28 as an annual day of remembrance.
Lai continued by acknowledging that while considerable progress has been made toward justice, the search for historical truth takes intensive work. Last year he requested that the National Security Bureau prepare approximately one million documents from its records during the martial law period for submission to the National Development Council’s National Archives Administration by June.
The president added that the Ministry of Culture had also begun reviews of historical sites related to human rights violations to preserve them for posterity. He concluded with hopes that the annual memorial service not only honor victims and offer comfort to the families of the dead, but also reinforce the lessons of history so that they might not be repeated. (POC-E)
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