Taiwan strips Chiang Kai-shek's name from memorial

TAIPEI, May 19 (Reuters) Taiwan erased the name Chiang Kai-shek today from a memorial hall built almost three decades ago to honour the former strongman ruler and rededicated it as a symbol of the island's democratic struggle.

In a move that reflects Taiwan's bitter political divide, the government now run by a party diametrically opposed to Chiang's Nationalists (KMT) unveiled a plaque at the renamed Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall but pledged not to alter exhibits on the 25-hectare (62-acre) compound in central Taipei.

Riot police wielding batons dispersed hundreds of KMT supporters who tried to stage a protest rally at the site.

Chiang ruled Taiwan first from China, then from Taipei after the Communists routed his mainland forces in 1949. Today's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) faults Chiang for killing political dissidents on the island in the 1940s and other crackdowns.

''Built to honour an authoritarian ruler, the building's overall design emanates the aura of a personality cult,'' the government said in a statement today.

''At the same time, however, the complex became the staging point for important democracy movement activities in the period of political transformation and liberalisation that began in 1987, when Taiwan threw off the shackles of 38 years of martial law,'' the statement says.

The official revisionism began in recent years with the removal of Chiang statues from public places across the island. It picked up momentum last year when the DPP dropped his name from the title of Taiwan's main international airport.

Earlier this year, the government also stripped Chiang likenesses from military bases.

Chiang's KMT (Kuomintang) ruled the Chinese mainland for much of the period between the abdication of the last emperor in 1911 and the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist armies in 1949. Beijing continues to claim sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan.

REUTERS NY PM1330