Authorities investigating the election-eve shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) have questioned 34 members of the security force responsible for protecting the president, an investigator said yesterday.
Officials couldn't make public what was discussed in the interviews and who was questioned because the information could affect the investigation, said Yen Jong-sung, an official involved in the probe.
"The time and place of the interviews, I also can't discuss publicly," Yen said,
Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), were shot one day before they were re-elected in the March 20 vote. They were lightly wounded while driving past crowds in an open top Jeep in the southern city of Tainan. No suspects have been identified, and officials haven't announced any solid leads.
However, investigators on Friday released video tape from a security camera that showed a man in a yellow jacket hurrying away from the shooting scene. Officials urged the man -- who wasn't named as a suspect -- to report to police for questioning.
People unfamiliar with a Taiwanese election parade may believe it was unusual that people at the scene said they didn't see the shooter and didn't hear the gunshots, but as there were thousands of firecrackers being set off by Chen's supporters within feet of the presidential motorcade, it may not be so unusual after all, one foreign reporter said.
Yen told reporters last Sunday that Chen's supporters were igniting strings of celebratory fireworks as the president drove by and this made it difficult to spot the shooter.
"At the time, there was so much smoke from the firecrackers, even the car's driver couldn't see much of the road in front of him," said Yen, chief prosecutor in Tainan County.
"The sound of the firecrackers was so loud that all other sounds couldn't be heard," he added.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
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