Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday welcomed the Control Yuan's report on the attack on her and then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the eve of the presidential election on March 19, 2004, but urged the government watchdog to produce more concrete evidence before it dismisses the investigation conducted by the Tainan Public Prosecutor's Office.
The Control Yuan report on Wednesday found several flaws in the prosecutorial investigation into the “319” incident by the Tainan office in 2005, which concluded that it was the work of a lone shooter, Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), who was found dead 10 days after the incident.
Lu said she had also raised many questions about the case in her book, Putting 319 in Perspective: One Truth, One Taiwan.
If any agency wishes to form a task force to probe further into the matter, Lu said, she should be a member.
Saying she did not believe the allegations that the shooting was staged by Chen Shui-bian, Lu urged the Supreme Prosecutor's Office's Special Investigation Panel (SIP) to conduct a thorough inquest to uncover the truth.
“Who will risk his or her life to do such a thing?” she asked.
Lu said she believed there were two gunmen and that she was not convinced that Chen Yi-hsiung was capable of carrying out the shooting alone.
Lu made the remarks while stumping for the Democratic Progressive Party mayoral candidate in Keelung City yesterday morning.
In the past Lu has suggested that people betting on the results of the 2004 presidential election could have backed the assassination attempt. Other possible culprits behind the incident were China or the pan-blue or pan-green camp, she said.
On March 19, 2004, a bullet grazed Chen's stomach and another hit Lu's knee as they were campaigning in Tainan. The pan-blue camp said the shooting was staged to win sympathy votes.
Chen Shui-bian's office yesterday issued a statement urging the Control Yuan to launch an inquest into the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and SIP to see whether there were any political motive behind the failure to solve the case.
While the former president was a victim of an assassination attempt, the office said, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has long accused him of staging the incident. Since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May last year, the administration promised to reopen the case, but no progress has been made, it said.
The office also urged the Control Yuan to investigate the motives of some of the people involved.
“If the Control Yuan report is aimed at attacking the former president, it will lose its independence and credibility,” it said. “So when it raises questions about the prosecutorial investigation, it should also tell the public whether it suspects the people involved are responsible for the conspiracy or forgery.”
The people involved are Steve Chan (詹啟賢), superintendent of Chi Mei Hospital, where Chen Shui-bian and Lu received treatment; former National Police Agency head Hou You-yi (侯友宜); forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺); Chen Yi-hsiung and Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮), the chief prosecutor of the Tainan Prosecutor's Office when the case was closed.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) yesterday urged the MOJ to reinvestigate the shooting and suggested the former president's name be struck off the list of the nation's former leaders.
Lee said he was “extremely disappointed” that Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰), who was a member of the 319 investigative committee, had failed to clear up the case since becoming minister.
KMT Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said the Control Yuan should also censure the Tainan office over its handling of the case.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
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