Feb 28, 2006

Taiwan: Flags to Fly Half Mast to Commemorate the 288 Massacre


Flags will fly at half mast today out of respect for the victims of the 228 Incident. The 228 Incident refers to the military crackdown by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on Taiwanese demonstrators in 1947

Flags will fly at half mast today out of respect for the victims of the 228 Incident, and will do so every year on Feb. 28, the Cabinet announced yesterday.

"This is a way for the government to express its condolences to the 228 Incident's victims," Government Information Office Minister Cheng Wen-tsang said at a press conference yesterday.

Premier Su Tseng-chang has ordered that all government offices and schools fly their flags at half mast each year on Feb. 28 out of respect for the victims of the bloody government crackdown in 1947.

Previously, the flag has only been flown at half mast at government facilities whenever persons of significance died, such as former president Chiang Ching-kuo and Pope John Paul II, or major tragedies occurred, such as the 921 earthquake and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US.

The 228 Incident refers to the military crackdown by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on Taiwanese demonstrators and subsequently on thousands of elite figures in 1947. Tens of thousands of people died in the process, with many more being jailed and persecuted in the decades that followed.

Source: Tapei Times

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