MND is not considering Tzuhu guard withdrawal

Whether the Ministry of National Defense will withdraw military police guarding the Tzuhu Presidential Burial Place (慈湖陵寢) depends on whether the family of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) wants to move his remains to the Wuchih-shan Military Cemetery (五指山軍人公墓) in Taipei County, a defense ministry official said yesterday.

In a public hearing held by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the ministry's Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Personnel Huang Yi-ping (黃奕炳) said the ministry would continue to maintain the mausoleum unless Chiang's family made a second request to move the remains.

Although Democratic Progressive Party legislators earlier this week proposed that the guards be withdrawn from the Administration Office of the Tzuhu Presidential Burial Place, Huang said the ministry so far had not received any order from the Cabinet.

The legislators made the proposal as part of a call to the government to quicken its pace to promote a series of changes, including removing the guards at the mausoleum and dissolving the Tzuhu office.

Huang said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had ordered the ministry to bury Chiang and his son, president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經 國) in accordance with the State Funeral Law (國葬法) after the family requested the remains be moved to the military cemetery in 2004.

The removal was canceled, however, after Faina Chiang Fang-liang (蔣方良), Chiang Ching-kuo's wife, died the same year, Huang said.

If the ministry received orders from the Cabinet to withdraw the guards and abolish the administration office, the ministry would conduct a careful evaluation of the order, he said.

KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), son of Chiang Ching-kuo, said at the event that it was reasonable for the ministry to establish mausoleums for national leaders who died while they were in office.

Maintaining the mausoleum is a matter of principle instead of budget and the mausoleums of both Chiangs should be regarded as "quasi-national cemeteries," which are part of public and cultural goods, he added.