The culture ministry is set to reveal more than 10,000 court documents from Taiwan’s martial law era. That’s the word from Culture Minister Lung Yingtai on Monday.
Taiwan imposed martial law between 1949 and 1987. Many people were imprisoned for alleged sedition and spying for China. Culture Minister Lung Yingtai said that these documents originally belonged to the military intelligence bureau, archives bureau, and the defense ministry. She said while most of the documents are only available as photocopies, they provide important information for researchers to understand the martial law period. Lung said the documents will finally reveal the ugly truth of the past.
“The culture ministry wants to make the documents public because we want people to understand the history," said Lung. "By revealing these documents from the past, Taiwan can move a step forward on the path toward human rights.”
Lung said the ministry will need more time to organize the documents and to ensure that political prisoners’ privacy is respected. So they won’t be available to the public until 2016.