Taipei, Dec. 10 (CANA) If risking your life for your beliefs and values is honorable, then trying to help those in a country thousands of miles away whom you don't even know and whose names you have a hard time pronouncing is equally appreciated.
That's what the group of international human rights workers invited to attend Monday's inauguration ceremony for the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial Park did almost 30 years ago through their collective efforts to put pressure on Taiwan authorities to release political prisoners.
Most of the human rights workers, who were based in the United States, Japan, Germany and several other countries, learned of the political prisoner cases in Taiwan by accident and never met the Taiwanese prisoners they helped save until last weekend when they together visited the new park which was once known as the Jingmei Military Detention Center.
Klaus Walter, head of the membership department of Amnesty International German Section, said he wanted to work on South American political prisoner cases at first but was assigned to handle a Taiwan case in 1975 as a 21-year-old student volunteer in Bonn, Germany.
"Maybe my Spanish wasn't good enough, " Walter said half-jokingly, adding that prior to that time, he had no idea where Taiwan was.
However, after starting to work on the case, he began to understand more about the political situation in Taiwan and, one year later, formed a Taiwan Coordination group whose task was to gather all available information on all political prisoners in Taiwan.
It was not easy because Taiwan officials had never answered AI letters, he said, forcing him to gather information via human rights groups in Japan and other countries. In addition, AI regulations required that staff obtain information from at least two different sources to confirm its credibility.
Masahiro Watarida chose a more direct way to gather information and became a victim himself. Watarida, who is now the secretary-general of Globalization Watch Hiroshima, visited Taiwan soon after the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979 to collect information on human rights violations.
When departing from Taiwan Dec. 21, 1979, Watarida was found carrying newspapers and magazines covering the incident. He was arrested, tortured and detained for 84 days.
Overseas Taiwanese also worked hard to seek international help. Roger Chao, a Germany-based Taiwanese reverend and one of the leaders of "Christians for Taiwan's Self-determination, " and his wife Doris worked with AI on extending assistance to victims of the incident.
"And because AI did not allow members to work on cases in their own country, Taiwanese members established a group to seek support from the international community, " Chao said.
International support and assistance were important because the people of Taiwan could not do much living under the authoritarian regime, Chao said.
The Hsieh Tsun-min case showed why the rescue of Taiwanese political prisoners was a global effort. Hsieh, who was imprisoned in 1964 for a public statement titled "A Declaration of Formosan Self-salvation" as a student at National Taiwan University, got acquainted with Japanese Taiwan independence supporter Masanari Kobayashi when both were in a Taiwan Garrison Command detention center in 1971.
Kobayashi had succeeded in distributing leaflets advocating Taiwan independence by flying baloons in Taipei but was later arrested and deported. Later, he helped send Hsieh's messages to international organizations. The messages were printed in the New York Times, which led to Hsieh's death sentence being rescinded later.
On Hsieh's visit to the AI German Section after his release, Rev. Chao recalled, a girl showed Hsieh a letter which had been sent to him seven years earlier but returned by Taiwan authorities.
"The girl was 17 years old when she sent the letter of support. Hsieh was in tears upon reading that letter, " Chao said.
Because Taiwan received so much international help during the period of "White Terror" in the country and because the country now enjoys full democracy, the people of Taiwan should start extending a helping hand to people in regions around the world who are suffering from the same sort of repression, Walter said.
"Think about Darfur, Sudan, where there's a major human rights crisis. Or think about Myanmar, which is closer to you in Asia, " he said, adding that it's time for Taiwan to extend help to those in need.