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`Anti-corruption' campaign planning new protest rallies

The anti-corruption campaign headquarters yesterday announced it would donate NT$17 million (US$300,000) that remains from donations it received to charity groups, and said it is planning new rallies on Sept. 9 and Double Ten National Day.

Yao Li-ming (姚立明), deputy director of the campaign, told a press conference that the donations received from a fundraising campaign last year totaled NT$111 million, and that the group would invite former legislator Chi Cheng (紀政) and six other academics and professionals to form a committee and decide which charities should receive the remaining NT$17 million.

LAST YEAR

Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who was DPP chairman between 1994 and 1996 before leaving the party in 2000, launched the anti-graft campaign on Sept. 9 last year with a round-the-clock sit-in in front of the Presidential Office to call on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to step down.

While vowing not to end the sit-in until Chen stepped down, the campaign ended last October after the police clamped down on its "seige" protest on the Oct. 10 holiday.

Shih, speaking at a press conference yesterday, accused the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation of bugging the group since March.

SPYING

"I was spied on and investigated by special agents before, but it pains me to learn that the party I once led treated me the same way," Shih said.

Shih claimed the bureau had bugged the campaign office's phones and the mobile phones of key officials in the campaign, and had also tried to pressure the Certified Accountants Association not to certify the group's donation records.

Shih urged President Chen to respect the group's human rights.

CELEBRATE

Jerry Fan (范可欽), a campaign spokesman, called on the public to celebrate the one year anniversary of the campaign on Sept. 9 in Ketagalan Boulevard and to join a rally on Double Ten National Day.

"President Chen wanted to expand the scope of this year's Double Ten Day celebration and the red army will not be absent from the event," Fan said.
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