Taipei, Feb. 28 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Monday that the archives related to the 228 Incident must be made public to help learn the complete truth about the tragic event.
Chen also said a national human rights commission should be provided for under the Constitution in the constitutional re-engineering project to avoid such tragedy from taking place again.
The president made the remarks when he attended the 58th anniversary of the incident at the 228 Peace Park in downtown Taipei.
Chen noted that the incident -- civil disorder and a brutal crackdown by the government that began Feb. 28, 1947, triggered by a dispute between an unlicensed cigarette vendor and an anti-smuggling officer the day before, and the ensuing period known as the "White Terror" was a "massive and systematic encroachment on human rights by the nation in an authoritarian period." "Despite the fact that the victims and those involved came from every ethnic group, " Chen said, it nevertheless sowed the seeds of mistrust and hatred between the various ethnic groups.
Under the long period of Kuomintang martial law, no one dared to address the issue, Chen noted, and there was no investigation of the truth, no resolution of misunderstandings and hatred and no help for the various groups to understand or even reconcile amongst themselves.
For half a century, everyone in Taiwan has been affected by the tragedy so that they cannot open up their arms and hearts to embrace their different historical memories and cannot share common experiences and traumas.
To ensure there is no repeat of a similar tragedy in the future, Chen said that the two major goals at present are to open the government's secret files related to the 228 Incident so as to expedite the finding of the truth.
As this was a human rights incident, he said, in the constitutional re-engineering project a national human rights commission should be provided for and that the protection on human rights should also be expanded in the Constitution in line with the highest standards of international human rights.
The president reaffirmed that reconciliation must be based on truth and said the government will work toward finding the complete truth of the tragic event as soon as possible.
The president also led Vice President Annette Lu, Premier Frank Hsieh, Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, 228 Incident Memorial Foundation Chairman Chen Chin-huang, and family members of some of the victims in laying wreaths and paying their respects before the 228 memorial.