Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) yesterday visited the family of late Army Corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) and promised to find out the truth about his death earlier this month.
Hung Chung-chiu was serving in the 542nd Brigade in Hsinchu and was to be discharged on July 6.
On June 28, he was sent to the 269th Brigade in Taoyuan for disciplinary action because he brought a camera phone onto the base on June 23, in breach of regulations.
On the afternoon of July 3, he was let out of his cell to join a 45-minute routine training session with his fellow soldiers that included running, push-ups and sit-ups.
Hung told his supervisors that he felt “very sick” after the workout. He was sent to a hospital in Hsinchu County and later transferred to the Tri-Service General Hospital, where he died the next day.
Hung’s parents believe their son died from heat exhaustion.
Kao visited Hung’s family in Greater Taichung yesterday morning immediately after returning from a trip abroad.
“[My] son is gone,” Hung’s mother told Kao in tears.
Kao, who paid his respects in front of Hung’s coffin, tried to console the soldier’s family and vowed to look into the incident.
The minister conveyed President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) great sorrow and condolences over the tragedy to Hung’s family.
“This sad incident has taught us an important lesson,” Kao told reporters. “I have asked the armed forces to study the incident from the perspectives of the law, executive management, emergency treatment and other aspects.”
Meanwhile, the military has arranged for Hung’s autopsy to be conducted today by forensic expert Shih Tai-ping (石台平) of the Ministry of Justice’s Institute of Forensic Medicine.
The military announced it would punish 27 officers, including three-star Commander General Lee Hsiang-chou (李翔宙), over Hung’s death, and conduct further investigations into the matter.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Medical Alliance for Labor Justice and Patient Safety (TMAL) panned the Ministry of National Defense for bringing a medical officer who had attended Huang before he was rushed to hospital before a military court on suspicion of negligent homicide.
The TMAL protested against what it called the “unreasonableness and thoughtlessness” of the ministry’s action.
The organization said it is dedicated “to ensuring the rights of all healthcare providers.”
The group said in the statement that the military has been practicing improper punitive measures for years and it is every family’s worst nightmare that their son is conscripted and does not return.
“We share the fury over the mistreatment that Hung was subjected to, and we support the arrest of his assailants by law enforcement agencies and any measures to correct the wrongs in the existing system to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” the statement said.
“However, the military chose to shirk its responsibility by attributing the death of the serviceman to a medical officer who is, like Hung, fulfilling his mandatory military service,” the group said.
According to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, the medical officer, surnamed Lu (呂), has made an appeal to the organization.
TMAL said the officer told it that he arrived at the confinement cell about five minutes after he was informed of Hung’s condition and arranged for hospitalization immediately after he found Hung unconscious due to heat stroke.
The ministry reportedly said that it had detained the medical officer not to accuse him of wrongdoing, but to “find out the truth” amid doubts over alleged delays in medical treatment and hospitalization.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
RSS