President urged to reach peace deal with Beijing
ROC Central News Agency
2016/10/22 18:27:36
Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) A group comprising survivors and families of victims of political suppression from the 1950s urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) Saturday to sign a peace agreement with Beijing to ensure the peaceful development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations.
The group put forward the proposal at an annual event held in Taipei to remember the "white terror" victims. The theme of this year's event was "peace agreement and historical justice," according to the group.
As survivors of "white terror" and families of the victims, the group said they have a very deep feeling about the damage caused to Taiwanese society by the 38-year-long martial law imposed by the former Kuomintang regime following its retreat to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war.
They argued that Tsai's efforts to promote transitional justice, which they said merely targets the injustices committed by the past authoritarian rulers, is based on "a distortion of history."
Whether it is cross-strait confrontation or authoritarian repression in Taiwan, they can both trace their roots to the prolonged state of cross-strait hostilities as a result of the Chinese civil war, they said.
The problem, which remains unresolved to this day, is also to blame for the current tensions across the strait and the political rivalry in Taiwan, they said.
As Taiwan's national leader, Tsai has the responsibility to correct the mistakes of history and should work to put an end to cross-strait confrontation, as the focus of her efforts to promote transitional justice, according to the group.
To that end, they said, the president should sign a peace agreement with Beijing to protect the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and ensure that the two sides "will not revert to the old path of confrontation."
(By Lu Hsin-hui and Y.F. Low)
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