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Pan-blue camp dismisses breakthrough in 319 case

Investigators from the Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday displays a piece of transparency featuring Chen Yi-hsiung -- a suspect in the March 19 assassination attempt. The image on the transparency was copied from a video, as Chen was captured by a street camera close to where the president was shot. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

The pan-blue camp yesterday rejected the breakthrough in the investigation into the March 19 assassination attempt, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) reaffirming its pledge to organize a march on the first anniversary of the shooting.

The KMT hopes to attract between 50,000 and 100,000 people for the event on Saturday. The procession is scheduled to begin at the Sungshan Tobacco Factory and end in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard.

Responding to the latest development in the investigation, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) told reporters yesterday that the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee must continue its work because the truth has not yet come out.

"While questions posed by the committee still remain unanswered, it makes sense for the committee to continue its work and discover the genuine truth of the shooting incident," Lien said.

Many pan-blue camp politicians and supporters continue to believe that Chen somehow staged his own shooting in a bid to win sympathy votes in last year's closely contested presidential election.

KMT Spokesman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) said that his party will hold a march on the first anniversary of the shooting to remind the public of the damage he said it had done to the nation's democratic development.

"We find the `significant breakthrough' proclaimed by the prosecutors hard to swallow," Chang said. "We're afraid that the truth will never come out and I believe both the Taiwanese people and the international community will continue to doubt the legitimacy of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)."

KMT caucus whip Chen Chieh (陳杰) said that he was "apprehensive" and "stunned" by prosecutors' findings.

"I am surprised that their discovery coincides with the rumor that the culprit is already dead," he said, adding that further investigation is required to find out more about the case.

People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) did not comment on the breakthrough. But Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), director of the PFP's policy research department, said that his party thus far does not intend to mobilize its members to protest on the anniversary of the shooting incident.

"As the incident has become a legal case, we will let the judicial system take care of it," he said.

But Chang added that he suspects Prosecutor-General Wu Ying-chao (吳英昭) and Hou You-yi (侯友宜), commissioner of the National Police Agency's Criminal Investigation Bureau, will soon be promoted because they helped clear Chen's name.

PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said that the case is "a comical version of the Kennedy assassination."

"It is hilarious that the police claimed that they made a breakthrough, while there is no witness or substantial evidence," Liu said. "We'd also like to know what the motive is and whether there is an accomplice."

Liu, who was elected yesterday as one of the three chairmen of the legislature's judicial committee, vowed to ask Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) to deliver a report on the matter once the committee meets.

Dismissing the breakthrough as a "distraction tactic," PFP caucus whip Chen Chih-bin (陳志彬) charged that the finding is politically motivated.

"We think further investigation should be carried out, trials held and witnesses questioned, because the truth is not out and many questions remained unanswered," Chen Chih-bin said.

Echoing Chen's opinion, PFP Legislator Li Yong-ping (李永萍) said that the DPP-led government is using a dead person to solve a political dispute. Li also pledged to amend the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例) to bolster its work.
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