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DPP appeals to Kinmen residents with vow to use stolen assets for demining

The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) branch in Kinmen County has appealed to local residents to support a DPP-initiated referendum on retrieving the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) stolen assets, promising that the returned assets can be used for demining operations on the island group.

The islands, which lie closer to China's Fujian Province than to Taiwan, became a battlefield in 1949 during the KMT's flight to Taiwan.

The island is estimated to be covered with more than 70,000 mines laid during the period of confrontation with the communists.

Chen Tsang-chiang (陳滄江), director of the DPP's Kinmen County chapter, DPP legislative candidate Tang Huei-pei (唐惠霈) and party member Wong Ming-chih (翁明志) issued the appeal on Wednesday at a news briefing held at a mine field.

Their appeal to voters came days after the KMT urged voters to boycott the "party assets" referendum and a KMT-initiated referendum on fighting corruption to avoid confusion during the upcoming legislative election this month, in which ballots for the referendums will also be handed out to voters.

The DPP officials on Wednesday also sought to clarify accusations by Kinmen Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李炷烽), who concurrently serves as the campaign manager of KMT legislative candidate Wu Cheng-tien (吳成典), that the Ministry of National Defense plans to build a missile base on the island and that the stalling of demining operations was a DPP election ploy to appeal to voters.

Calling Lee's accusations groundless, Chen said the KMT should be held responsible for the minefields on Kinmen as it planted more than "100,000 mines" there after fleeing to Taiwan in 1949.

Dismissing Lee's assertion that clearing mines was one of Wu's achievements, Chen said that the mine-clearing operations did not begin until the DPP came to power, adding that the DPP administration has since 2006 earmarked NT$4.6 billion (US$142 million) for demining operations.

Last April, the government resolved to clear all minefields on Kinmen and Matsu within seven years.

More than 200 suspected land mine sites remain to be cleared on Kinmen, posing a threat to residents, an army official said at the time.

Wong on Wednesday also accused the KMT of fabricating accusations against the central government, while turning a blind eye to China's deployment of more than 1,000 missiles against Taiwan.

Tang said that building Kinmen into an island of peace was in line with his campaign theme, which also conforms with DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign policy of clearing land mines to attract foreign investment to the island.
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