In an effort to improve his reputation abroad, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) sent a legislator, a police bureaucrat and a justice ministry official to Washington on Monday to argue that recent charges of Taiwanese police brutality were a “misunderstanding.”
After making a 90-minute presentation at the Heritage Foundation — a conservative think tank — the team moved on to the US Congress to distribute a statement denying that police were anything other than victims in the protests against Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin's (陳雲林) visit last month.
“The idea of political persecution, the idea that President Ma is using the law as a tool to get even with or to punish members of the previous government is a complete misunderstanding,” said Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), the chair of the legislature's Judiciary, Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
The statement, bound in a yellow plastic folder and containing 17 color photographs showing police under attack by protesters — and one color picture of a small girl handing a rose to a police officer under the guidance of an adult — were prepared by the National Police Agency and the Ministry of the Interior.
It said that 150 police officers had been injured — compared with just 30 protesters and reporters — and that protesters had hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and human waste at the police.
It denied that police had stopped protesters from waving Republic of China or Tibetan flags or that they closed down a record store playing patriotic Taiwanese music.
The statement further said that on the day before Chen's arrival in Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians were offering cash prizes to anyone who succeeded in hitting him with an egg.
The prize offer was in fact made by the Northern Taiwan Society civic group.
“Freedom of expression is very strongly protected in Taiwan,” the statement said.
It said that creating an independent commission to investigate the clashes was unnecessary and inappropriate. But the report conceded that “the police should be required to further improve their technique for crowd control.”
In conclusion, the report said: “Our police have shown great restraint in dealing with demonstrations.”
Later, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs — a non-profit group supporting Taiwan's independence — said that between 200 and 300 protesters were injured during Chen's visit, that no DPP politician had offered cash for throwing eggs at Chen and that there was strong evidence of police acting violently against peaceful protesters.
In the case of the record shop, it said that video footage showed police officers forcing the shop owner to close the shop by lowering the shutters.
Last month, 18 Taiwanese-American organizations released a statement saying they were “outraged” by the actions of the Ma administration in quashing mass protests during Chen's visit.
“Taiwan has seemed to revert to the days of Martial Law where there was no freedom of speech, no personal liberties, no freedom of association but only the confrontation between the police force and public,” the statement said.
During the presentation at Heritage, Hsieh, National Police Agency Senior Executive Officer John Chu (曲來足) and Ministry of Justice Counselor Chin Jeng-shyang (覃正祥) were peppered with questions that cast doubt on their version of events, as well as a complaint regarding selective use of photographic evidence.
In what appeared to be an attempt to justify the actions of police during Chen's visit, Hsieh said he had lived in Los Angeles for 10 years and “I know what police brutality is and Taiwan does not have a police brutality issue.”
In his introductory remarks, and like Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) before him, Hsieh said several times that former president Chen Shui-bian had been charged prior to his arrest. In fact Chen has been detained without charge. Hsieh seemed confused about the detention and prosecutorial process, claiming a distinction between being charged and being indicted. When asked to explain the difference, he provided no answer.
He said that Ma had resisted attempts by his “true, loyal supporters” to interfere in the judicial system, and that the president “might have the power to tamper with” the judicial system but chose not to.
Hsieh also said the Egmont Group's report of data that pointed to Taiwanese money-laundering involved “Chen Shui-bian's family's money-lending activity around the world.”
This has yet to be determined by a court.
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