The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus proposed a draft law yesterday to establish a special committee to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮).
Reacting to criticism that the party was trying to pass a law aimed at a single case, KMT caucus leaders said the legal change would be constitutional.
The pan-blue alliance has repeatedly asked Chen to announce an emergency decree and to form a special committee to probe the shooting incident. Chen, however, has rejected those calls, saying State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發) has already announced an independent task force for the case.
The KMT and the People First Party (PFP) have expressed distrust toward the nation's judiciary.
Last Saturday, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), the pan-blue camp's presidential candidate, vowed that unless Chen could accept the request to establish a special committee, the pan-blue camp's protests would continue indefinitely.
According to the KMT draft, the special committee would consist of 11 members: the president of Control Yuan, five experts recommended by political parties, four Control Yuan members and the state public prosecutor-general.
"The committee would have to accomplish its investigation within three months and then report to both the Legislative Yuan and the Control Yuan," KMT whip Liao Fung-te (
Liao said the judiciary has yet to provide an explanation for the shooting, despite the incident having occurred more than two weeks ago, adding this will harm the government's credibility and increase suspicion.
"We hope the pan-green alliance will not boycott the draft, which will be dealt with today," he said.
The Democratic Progressive Party caucus said the only function of the KMT's special committee was to allow the blue camp to appoint two or three members.
"But the independent task force organized by the state public prosecutor-general has invited Henry Lee (李昌鈺), a world-renowned forensics expert recommended by the KMT, to assist with the investigation," DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said.
Meanwhile, Huang Lai (
"Since no security guards took bullets for the president and the vice president, there is no doubt that our training failed," Huang said.
He said documents accusing the NSB of joining a conspiracy to stage the assassination attempt were false.
"The phrasing and format of those documents are completely different from genuine NSB papers," Huang said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
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