The Ministry of National Defense yesterday denied reports that conscripts could dodge military service by offering bribes to doctors responsible for checking their pre-service physical conditions.
The ministry said media reports were based on false newspaper advertisements which claimed a NT$500,000 pay-off could buy an exemption to military service.
Ministry spokesman Major General Huang Shui-sheng (
Huang then invited military medical officials to explain how difficult it was for conscripts to feign sickness to avoid service.
It is the rule for conscripts to undergo physical exams at military hospitals or approved civil hospitals three to six months before their planned service entry date. Those who fail the first exam have to undergo a second exam before they can be diagnosed as "unfit" for military service.
Rear Admiral Wu Shao-bai (吳少白), a department chief with the military medical bureau, said military hospitals and approved civilian hospitals have a very strict system for examining conscripts. There is no room for conscripts to feign sickness under such a system, Wu said. Hospitals also carefully check the identity of each conscript to avoid cases of imposters posing as recruits, he added.
As to cases of mental illness among conscripts, Wu said, there have been very few conscripts willing to act mentally ill to avoid military service, as it would label them for the rest of their lives.
But Colonel Chang Ming (張敏), superintendent of the military's only psychiatric hospital, admit-ted it would be easy for a conscript to feign mental illness if he had been taught to do so.
"That's why we have to have different doctors check any conscript suspected of having a mental illness," Chang said.
"Usually we have three doctors confirm such cases over a period of time."
RSS