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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN TAIWAN MARKs 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF FEB. 28, 1947 MASSACRE

Updated: March 17, 1987 05:00 PM GMT
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The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) has marked the 40th anniversary of a Feb. 28, 1947 incident in which Nationalist (Kuomintang) troops killed thousands of rebelling Taiwanese, including many Presbyterians.

Besides the PCT services Feb. 28 in Tainan and Taipei, thousands gathered in Taipei, Kaohsiung and islandwide, organized by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to mark the "2-28 incident" for the first time.

The government permitted the gatherings, apparently to avoid confrontation.

While the Catholic Church has made no official statement on the anniversary, a Jesuit group was reported to be discussing it in the context of the current alienation of many Taiwanese from the government.

The Jesuit group reportedly plans to ask Taiwan´s Chinese Catholic Bishops´ Conference to make efforts at conciliation, according to sources here.

In a related incident, about 80 pastors, lay people and Tainan (Presbyterian) Theological College and seminar students, demonstrated March 11 against the Feb. 20 seizure of the Presbyterian "Taiwan Church News" (TCN).

They carried banners and placards saying, "Give us back the stolen paper," on a five kilometer march in Tainan City, 260 km south of Taipei.

At the government building, the mayor´s chief secretary, Hsueh Wen-feng, received them and accepted a letter of protest read and handed over by former Presbyterian Church moderator, Pastor Chen Po-cheng.

"This is the first time in over 100 years of history," a Taiwanese professor-pastor said March 12, "that Presbyterian seminarians took their cause to the street," calling it a "peaceful atmosphere," not "a mood of confrontation."

Police and security forces had confiscated the TCN Feb. 22 issue, which carried a front-page story and editorial on the 1947 incident and announced an anniversary worship service.

-- In Taipei Feb. 28, about 500 people at a commemoration service at Meng Chia Church heard Lyou Ming, 84, a former Yenping University professor, recount how his students were killed by the military.

DPP chairman Chiang Peng-chieh and other opposition leaders were present.

-- In Tainan Feb. 28, about 200 people held a service at Tainan Theological College, including representatives of six families whose relatives were slain.

The estimate of victims ranges from 5,000 to 30,000, including many of the most-educated Taiwanese.

The homily was given by Reverend John Tin, 64, a Taiwanese historian who two days earlier was called by the garrison command, which tried to dissuade him from speaking.

Reverend Tin called the 1947 incident the largest massacre in Taiwan´s history. The Kuomintang government´s failure to seek reconciliation, he said, indicates it is not interested in making amends.

The government could have investigated the incident soon after it occurred, he said, or in 1950 when General Chen Yi, who ordered the massacre, was sentenced to death for trying to join the communist side.

Reverend Tin said the government could seek reconciliation now as President Chiang Ching-kuo prepares to lift martial law.

-- Hou Cho-yun, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, says many Taiwanese still suffer from a "Feb. 28 complex" that only President Chiang can ease.

Professor Hsu said the government should fix responsibility for the incident and make an official apology to citizens of Taiwanese origin. He proposed that the government appoint an investigating committee.

The government should also release those wrongly prosecuted, he continued, and allow the return of political exiles who renounce violence and pledge allegiance to the constitution.

East coast people believe some Taiwanese are still imprisoned in connection with the incident, Swiss Bethelehem Father Josef Eugster said in Taitung.

The confiscated issue of TCN reported a statement of the Taiwan Association for the Promotion of Human Rights and 41 other groups proposing Feb. 28 be declared "Peace Day."

Though several newspapers reported on the anniversary, issues of at least eight opposition publications reporting on the Feb. 28 incident have not appeared on newsstands.

Reverend Tin said many people did not attend the services due to fear.

One who attended, Wang Chi-weh, 35, said, "In our school´s history lessons, we never heard anything about the Feb. 28 incident, but my parents and relatives always spoke about it with horror."

END

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