Editorial: Rattling the skeletons in the closet

The investigation into the Lafayette kickback scandal is snowballing as more and more countries get involved in the case. Presidential advisor Hsieh Tsung-min's (謝聰敏) recent visit to France and his meeting with former foreign minister Roland Dumas seems to have yielded more insider information on the case. The message from Hsieh was shocking: the kickbacks went not only to high-level government officials in France, Taiwan and China, but also to some of former US president Jimmy Carter's close aides. The question now is how to secure the list of recipients and prove that French frigate manufacturer Thomson CSF did scatter money across three continents to secure the multi-billion dollar sale.

Hsieh has suggested that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) should grant an amnesty to some key witnesses to encourage them to provide lists of people who benefitted from the bribery and help expose the killers of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓). But Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) has objected to that suggestion, saying a presidential amnesty should only be reserved for convicts. An amnesty for people implicated in a case that is still under investigation would amount to interference in the judicial process. Chen has suggested that instead, suspects could be exempted from criminal liability under Taiwan's anti-corruption regulations as a way of encouraging them to act as witnesses.

Chen's argument is reasonable. But the Lafayette investigation team has failed to made any breakthroughs after questioning former top military decision-makers, including Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) and Yeh Chang-tung (葉昌桐), and after detaining a significant number of high-ranking military officers.

The predicament facing the investigators now is that almost all the key players in the case have fled to other countries. The mysterious arms broker Tu Cheng Chun-chu (涂鄭春菊) now lives in Germany. During President Chen's tour to Africa, his aide Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) was rumored to have gone to France to meet with Tu, but Ma has so far denied the story. Another broker, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) left for the the US long ago.

Hsieh's investigation has also revealed a trail of death linked to the kickback scandal, in addition to Yin's. Two people suspected of involvement in the laundering of the kickbacks have died from car accidents. Thierry Imbot, the son of a former French intelligence chief who was in Taipei from 1989-94 as a "special officer" of the French commercial office, died in October after falling from a building in South Africa. Thomson Japan's general manager Jean-Claude Albessard died from a mysterious disease in March. Almost all avenues of investigation in the case are now blocked.

The only hope now seems to lie in Thomson CSF's own list of people to whom kickbacks were given. But prosecutor Hung Wei-hua (洪威華), head of the Lafayette investigation team, failed to obtain the list during his recent visit to France. Hsieh's attempt to secure it from Dumas also failed. Taiwan legislators are now preparing to send a delegation to France on a similar mission and Chen has also promised to help. But persuading France to provide the list is a very difficult task, far removed from the political grandstanding that has gone on at home.

A lawsuit may be the only way to obtain the Thomson CSF list. Navy headquarters have already filed a lawsuit in a French court demanding compensation from Thomson. The navy hopes to obtain the name list during the litigation process.