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MND under fire for response to threat to Chen

Former army honor guard Chu Chao-kang (屈肇康), who left a message in an Internet chatroom saying that he wanted to harm the president, was indicted last week, with prosecutors seeking a seven year prison sentence.

But the response of the Ministry of National Defense, which initially branded his act as being "mere personal conduct" has drawn criticism.

Chu, who will finish his military service at the end of this year, posted the message online in March, but it was not exposed until two weeks ago.

Chu is a graduate of the department of Japanese at Soochow University. He had been planning to devote himself to a military career.

Chu left a message in a Yahoo chatroom identifying himself as an army honor guard. He wrote that when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) welcomed Nauru President Ludwig Scotty with an honor guard from the air force, the army and the navy on March 7, "I almost could not resist the urge to poke my M-1 rifle into the president's head."

The M-1 rifles carried by the guards are unloaded, but they are fitted with bayonets.

Internet surfers reported the matter to the army.

The army immediately relieved Chu of his duties as an honor guard.

When first approached by the press for comments on June 30, army spokesman Chou Yen-chung (周彥中), who was just promoted as a lieutenant general this month, said the military would regard Chu's comments as "personal conduct" and officials had been discussing the matter with him.

The army regarded Chu's post as "comments from outside the military" because Chu posted his messages during his vacation.

As such, Chu "did not distribute the wrong message as a soldier," Chou said.

However, some critics panned the ministry's response.

Branding Chu's act as "personal conduct" sent out the wrong message to other people doing military service, critics said.

Chang Chia-lun (張家倫), public affairs secretary-general at a non-profit group called Taiwan Youth which advocates on issues concerning young people, said the ministry should not have so casually dismissed the case.

"If Chu is forgiven, will it mean that any soldier will be allowed to threaten his superior officers if he hates them?" Chang said. "How will they [superior officers] lead their soldiers in the future?"

Chou said that Chu earlier this month was charged under Article 16 of the Military Criminal Code (陸海空軍刑法), which stipulates that anyone who distributes messages encouraging soldiers to carry out any form of seditious activity faces a sentence of no less than seven years.

The ministry did not explain why the military initially regarded Chu's message as not violating the Military Criminal Code.

People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said that the military had been wrong to indict Chu.

"I am not saying that Chu's remarks are absolutely OK. But, he simply posted a message, and didn't `distribute the message and encourage' fellow soldiers to assassinate the president. Article 16 of the Military Criminal Code does not apply to his case at all," Lu said.
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