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Shock over soldiers' sex abuse

A case of sexual abuse that took place six months ago at an army unit in the Matsu island group, but that had only recently been exposed by the media, became a hot topic at the legislature yesterday. It also caused great embarrassment for the Ministry of National Defense (MND).

Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) acknow-ledged that he had not been informed about the case until Nov. 2. He said some of his subordinates had tried to cover it up.

Tang, speaking at the legislature yesterday, said soldiers involved in the case are to be court-martialed and their commanding officers have been severely disci-plined.

He apologized to the public for what happened.

The minister did not mention whether he intends to punish military officials who had tried to keep him from finding out about the case.

The sexual abuse took place on April 30 at an infantry company of the 193rd brigade stationed in the Matsu island group, the army said.

Six soldiers forced another conscript, identified only by his surname, Hsu, to take off his pants and masturbate in front of them, according to the army's investigations. The six perpetrators also inserted a pen into the victim's anus.

Lawmakers described this as "appalling" and asked Tang to respond to what happened during yesterday's interpellation session at the legislature.

KMT lawmakers Lu Hsiu-yen (盧秀燕) and Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳學聖) said they fear the event might be just the tip of the iceberg, since they have found photos on the Internet showing other suspected abuses in the military.

The two displayed five photos downloaded from the Internet showing males dressed in military or coast guard uniforms who had their pants pulled down and suffered abuse to their genitals.

The MND and the Coast Guard Administration were unable to tell immediately whether the photos were real.

Tang, who did not exclude the possibility that the photos might be real, said the military would seek the help of scholars and experts in the field to prevent similar abuses in future.

"We will ask them to visit units on offshore islands to gain an understanding of what the problem might be," Tang said.

Investigations by the army showed that the sexual abuse arose out of "frolicking" between conscript Hsu and a non-commissioned officer surnamed Tsai. Six other soldiers saw what was happening and apparently lost their self-control.

Hsu was said to be in the habit of masquerading as a woman, investigators were told.
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