The government of Chen Shui-bian (
In a report issued in Washington yesterday on human rights conditions in more than 160 countries last year, Amnesty points to continued incidents of torture by the police, imposition of the death penalty, the trade in stun guns and the failure to ratify two international human rights conventions.
"Despite its promises to improve the human rights situation, the government implemented few reforms," the report said. However it did acknowledge pledges made by Chen late last year to implement changes addressing human rights concerns.
"Torture remained a serious and often unreported problem," the Amnesty report says. It cites allegations by the Chinese Association for Human Rights last year that police tortured 1,700 suspects to extract confessions in 2000. "Lawyers and human rights activists feared that confessions obtained under torture were used by the police as evidence in court," Amnesty said.
A strong opponent of the death penalty, Amnesty noted that 10 people were executed in Taiwan last year, although it pointed out a new law has reduced the number of crimes under the Military Criminal Code that carry a mandatory death sentence.
The report pays special attention to the Hsichih Trio case, in which defendants Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bin-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) remained on death row despite Chen's promise to consider a pardon.
Amnesty earlier called for an investigation into the case, saying that the men were tortured in police custody and confessed under duress. "A former cell mate of Su Chien-ho testified in May that when Su returned to his cell after an interrogation session, his lips were bloody and he was unable to stand without help. The cell mate stated that Su Chien-ho's genitals were badly swollen."
Another witness claimed that at one time, "Su [was] tied to a chair while a wooden pole was used to beat the soles of his feet, an electric cattle prod was used to apply shocks to Liu Bin-lang's genitals, and Chuang Lin-hsun was hit on the head."
Taiwan's trade in electric shock equipment, which can be used as a means of torture, was also cited in the report. Taiwan is a leading manufacturer of electro-shock equipment, including stun guns, "and there were few or no restrictions on their sale and use," Amnesty said.
The report also noted that the government was taking initial moves to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the two basic human rights documents of the UN.
While Taiwan was a signatory to the covenants, which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966 and which went into force in 1976, it never bothered to ratify them. While Taiwan would have difficulty depositing certificates of ratification with the UN today, since it is not a member, human rights activists in Taiwan have urged the government to ratify them anyway, to make sure local laws and practices are in line with recognized international human rights standards.
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