Human rights school in Kaohsiung opens

Renate Mueller-Wollermann, a senior board director of Amnesty International's (AI's) German branch, who was instrumental in getting Chen — at the time a political dissident — released from prison in 1986, delivered a speech at the ceremony. The launch of the Kaohsiung Human Rights Learning Studio, which will serve as a platform for people to exchange dialogue and learn about human rights, was part of a series of activities organized by the city government to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Formosa Incident, also known as the Kaohsiung Incident.

The incident took place Dec. 10, 1979, when a group of dissidents, mostly from Formosa Magazine, held a demonstration commemorating Human Rights Day in the city in an effort to promote and demand democracy in Taiwan.

The then-Kuomintang government cracked down on the protesters and arrested most of Taiwan's opposition political figures.

In the years following the incident, pressure grew on the government to lift martial law and a ban on new political parties and newspapers, leading to the country's democratization. Chen, one of the founders and writers of the pro-independence Formosa Magazine, was arrested following the incident and given a 12-year jail sentence.

She was six years and two months into her sentence when she was released in 1986 after efforts by Wollermann and other AI authorities. Chen visited Wollermann at her home in Germany the following year.

Wollermann and AI started instigating Chen's case earlier that year, even though they had “no idea where Taiwan was.”

Wollermann, who firmly believed Chen was a prisoner of conscience and entitled to freedom of speech, tried every means possible to facilitate Chen's release and even asked the German chancellor of the time to write to the Pope and seek his help in the case. Chen, Wollermann and other guests at the inauguration hung small cards on a “human rights tree” to express their aspirations for human rights and true democracy.

“If human rights are protected today, it does not guarantee that human rights will exist tomorrow,” Chen said while exhorting the public to cherish the country's hard-earned human rights. The Kaohsiung city government is organizing the series of activities — including seminars, a photo exhibition, a concert and a party — from Nov. 20-Dec. 20 to express appreciation for those who devoted themselves to Taiwan's democratization and “allowed the fire of democracy to keep burning.”

Human rights advocates from the United States, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, as well as local activists, will be invited to take part in the events. Among those invited are former U.S. Congressman Stephen J. Solarz and Rosemary Haddon, an associate professor at Massey University in New Zealand.

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