Acting on information from local residents, reporters for the vernacular "Apple Daily" found files on about 500 former detainees tossed like garbage in the abandoned Ankang Reception Center in Hsintien, Taipei County Tuesday evening.

Built in 1973, the innocently named "reception center" was initially controlled by the now defunct Taiwan Garrison Command's Military Law Department Ankang Detention Center and served as a location for the detention and joint interrogation, including torture, of "seditionists" by TGC military court prosecutors and the Investigation Bureau until the lifting of martial law in July 1987.

'Administrative data'

The files discovered by the reporters included personnel data on the late DPP chairman Huang Hsin-chieh, former vice president and long-time DPP activist Chiou I-jen, "Declaration for Taiwan Self-Salvation" co-author and former DPP lawmaker Hsieh Tsung-min and other political prisoners arrested and later tried under martial law military courts.

A news release issued by the MJIB stated that the files photographed by Apple Daily reporters were only "administrative data," including basic identification information, fingerprints and photographs, of persons interrogated at the center and had been stored in steel filing cabinets and were not "abandoned."

'National documents'

After news media flooded the area yesterday morning, the MJIB mobilized police to block reporters from further investigating the site, but allowed three and three DPP lawmakers, Ong Chin-chu, Lin Shu-fen and Chen Ting-fei to examine the site.

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, while DPP Legislator Ong Chin-chu said that President Ma Ying-jeou and the KMT government had to explain the reasons why the MJIB refused to turn over the documents and how they would handle the situation.

MJIB Deputy Director-General Tsai Chung-yu acknowledged that the bureau was guilty of "grave negligence" and promised the DPP lawmakers that the files would be "collected and collated" and then turned over to the NAA for preservation.

'Dereliction of duty'

DPP Culture and Information Department Director Cheng Wen-tsan stated that the failure of the Investigation Bureau to hand over these materials from the "white terror" was a "flagrant dereliction of duty" that the bureau bore responsibility for "a major violation of the National Archives Law," which required all ministries and agencies to transfer such files to the National Archives Bureau.

"Such materials involve the rights of the persons involved as well as the historical truth of the 'white terror' under Kuomintang martial law rule and are very important for Taiwan's democratic development and human rights," stated Cheng, who demanded that the ruling Kuomintang government punish those responsible.

Human rights activists and researchers into the "white terror" period also slammed the MJIB's "caviler" treatment of the precious historical files.

'Diary of democracy'

Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation Chairman Wu Nai-teh, a researcher in the Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology, condemned the MJIB for not cooperating with the National Achieves Law or obeying orders from former president Chen Shui-bian to turn over "white terror" related documents and for its "scandalous irresponsibility" in failing to even properly store the documents.

Contrary to the MJIB claims, Wu stated that the files were a "diary of democracy" and very vital for research into transitional justice and Taiwan's democratic history as the material concerned the process of detention and interrogation which is a "blank page" in most "white terror" cases.

Wu urged President Ma to fulfill his promise to reopen investigations into unsolved political murders under KMT authoritarian rule and "to take the initiative to collect unreleased files" from the Investigation Bureau, including files of the former TGC "Peace Preservation Department" and later "Peace Preservation Bureau" secret police agencies, which are now stored by the MJIB.