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Chen, Lu accept results of assassination investigation

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday expressed appreciation after the task force investigating last year's assassination attempt against them announced it was closing the case, saying that they accepted the result.

"The public has to respect the result because the task force spent more than one year looking for clues, including witnesses. I myself respect the judicial investigation report, which was carried out professionally, objectively and independently," Chen said.

Lu said that she had said after the shooting that there was only one way to convince people, and that was solid evidence.

"I will respond further to the result after I read through the whole report," she said.

Lien reacts

Meanwhile, outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) called the closing of the probe "absurd."

Speaking sarcastically, he called the development a "big gift" for him just as he steps down from the KMT chairmanship. He said the KMT would discover the truth for the people and the country some day and that he believed the truth about the March 19 shooting incident would be revealed eventually.

Lien steps down from the chairmanship post tomorrow.

"The DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] government has closed the case, in which the suspect is a dead man. This is not only absurd but also a big joke on democratic politics," Lien said.

People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) also does not accept the result, according to PFP Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), who relayed Soong's comments.

Soong is overseas now.

"When I talked to him on the telephone last night, Chairman James Soong said he found it unacceptable that prosecutors planned to close the investigation," Chang said.

Chang added that the PFP would join forces with the KMT to push for the establishment of a second March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee in the next legislative session.

If the DPP thought the case would be closed after Lien steps down, they were mistaken, Chang said.

Branding the closure of investigation as "political," KMT caucus whip Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) said that it is clear that there was interference in the case.

Cho also criticized the closure of the investigation as "crude," "ridiculous" and "irresponsible." "We are here to guarantee to the public that we will continue our efforts to find the truth in the mysterious case," he said. "I'm also calling on those who know anything about the case to come forward and become Taiwan's `Deep Throat.'"

Cho cast doubts on the evidence used in the case.

With the suspect dead, no weapon, no testimony from the suspect and no account of how the crime was committed, Cho said the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) should be rewritten if the investigation of such an important case could be closed so easily.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Jao Yung-ching (趙永清) said that his caucus would agree to the establishment of a second March 19 investigation committee.

He stipulated, however, that statute governing the committee would have to be amended first in response to a ruling made by the Council of Grand Justices.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) urged the public to have faith in the result.

"Many professional figures joined the investigation and reached a conclusion in the case. Hopefully people will trust their specialized knowledge just as they trust a doctor's opinion, and put aside disputes over the shooting case and move on," Su said.
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