By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

TAIPEI, Taiwan – At an abandoned Ministry of Justice building, reporters discovered deceased political prisoners’ files and interrogation records from the White Terror period.  Along with the files, reporters also discovered body part in jars.

Both the government and the reporters contend the body parts were from homicides, not political prisoners. Among the documents found inside were records of the interrogations of late DPP chairman Huang Hsin-chieh; the late writer, human rights activist and one-time political prisoner Bo Yang; and former national policy adviser Hsieh Tsung-min, who was also once a political prisoner.

Most of the files found were from Taiwan’s White Terror period, when the Kuomintang government of President Chiang Kai-shek persecuted dissidents and people it suspected of sympathies for communism or for Taiwan Independence.

The abandoned building where the files were found was once the Ankeng Guesthouse.  It was previously used by the notorious Taiwan Garrison Command as an interrogation center and for detentions.

The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau [MJIB] apologized for the oversight.  It contended that the building had been guarded but recent personnel cuts had affected security.  The MJIB also said the files only contained the most basic information, including fingerprints and photographs.

Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] members have demanded that the files be sent to the National Archives Administration.  DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen stated that the materials were “important witnesses to history and national documents” and declared that the MJIB had violated the National Archives Law by failing to hand them over to the National Archives Administration.

For more information, please see:

Taipei Times – White Terror Documents Cause Uproar – 19 March 2009

Taiwan News – Taiwan DPP Slams Investigative Bureau over White Terror Files – 19 March 2009

Taiwan News – Taiwan Reporters Find Investigation Bureau Dissident Files in Abandoned Building – 18 March 2008