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Wang to host talks on 319 probe

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) will convene cross-party talks on Thursday to discuss amending 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), with the aim of re-establishing the committee.

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), however, said it would boycott the talks and will launch a referendum on the statute.

Wang, who was criticized for appearing indifferent to the 2004 assassination attempt on the president and vice president during a rally held by the KMT on Sunday, said yesterday that he would prove he was concerned by taking action.

"I know how to make it so laws are revised and passed smoothly, and I will convene the negotiation meeting on Thursday," Wang said.

While it is not surprising that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) plan to attend the meeting, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also agreed to attend because the pan-blue camp said it might unfreeze some of the budgets it has blocked.

"If [the amendment] is legitimate and constitutional, we have no reason to oppose a second truth investigation committee," DPP caucus whip Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) said yesterday.

Both the pan-blue camp and the DPP agreed to first finish revising the sections of the committee's statute that were ruled unconstitutional and then set up the second investigation committee.

To counter the move to re-establish the committee, TSU legislative whip David Huang (黃適卓) yesterday said that the party would launch a referendum on the statue.

Huang said that setting up a second truth committee would be an insult to the police and prosecutors and would use political confrontation to override a legal investigation.

"The KMT just held a parade on March 12 claiming to fight for a better economy for the people. Yet it now asserts it will re-establish the truth investigation committee to paralyze the government's operations and policies, using the excuse of `no truth and no president.' The TSU refuses to cooperate with the KMT, which always says one thing but does another," Huang said.

The TSU will be absent from the cross-party talks convened by Wang and if the negotiations conclude with an agreement to amend the statue, the TSU will launch a referendum on the law in accordance with the second article of the Referendum Law (公民投票法), Huang said.

"We will resort to people power to stop the truth investigation committee," Huang said.
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