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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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