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MND denies plan to quash riots

The military denied a tabloid report that said 30,000 military personnel had been on alert to maintain public order at the Legislative Yuan last Tuesday, when lawmakers were voting whether to recall the president.

"I must say, what you read in the newspaper is not true. We never had such a plan. Neither myself, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) or Chief of the General Staff Lee Tien-yu (李天羽) know anything about this issue, either," said Ministry of National Defense Spokesman Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (吳季方).

Special task force

Wu was asked to respond to a story in the Apple Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper, which reported yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had ordered the military to form a special task force of 30,000 soldiers to be ready to respond to a riot at the Legislative Yuan last Tuesday.

According to the report, the plan was named the "An-hsiang Project." The 30,000-member task force would consist of special forces from the marines, the army and the military police, the Apple Daily reported.

The story said that Chen made the request to high-ranking military officers while he was visiting Kinmen on June 22.

Wu said that the military's prime target is foreign enemies, not fellow Taiwanese. Maintaining public order and dealing with riots would be the responsibility of the National Police Agency, not the military, he said.

Also, Wu added, the military would not interfere with the police's duties.

The admiral said that all of the nation's various military task forces are long-term mechanisms, adding that the military would "play by the rules."

External threats

"Our mechanisms and rules are actually established to counter the external threats from our enemy," Wu said.

In addition, the responsibilities of the military task forces were clearly listed, regulated and written in black and white, he said.

As a result, the military would never establish a small group or temporary task force as the newspaper reported, he added.

According to the story, the 30,000-member military task force was to temporarily cut off all traffic into Taipei City to protect the president if a riot raged out of control.

However, the military would not be authorized to shoot any Taiwanese citizens, even if a confrontation took place, it said.

"Since this is not a true story, I have nothing further to comment on," Wu said.
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