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Soong says US promised probe into Chen shooting

People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday said the US government in 2004 promised him and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) that it would organize a special committee to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮).

When approached by reporters on his way to a new book launch, Soong said that at the time the US government sent then-American Institute in Taiwan director Douglas Paal to make the promise in a bid to persuade them to end the pan-blue camp's violent demonstrations on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.

Soong said that the US government later broke its promise after pan-blue supporters withdrew from the boulevard.

He did not present any evidence to substantiate his claim.

The assassination attempt took place during a campaign motorcade in Tainan on March 19, 2004.

Chen and Lu were both shot during the event. Bullets grazed Chen's stomach and hit Lu's knee, but the injuries were not life-threatening.

Lien and Soong, who ran on the same ticket in the election, lost the presidential election one day later by just 29,518 votes.

Lien and Soong called Chen and Lu's victory unfair and demanded a recount while many pan-blue supporters refused to recognize the result of the election and staged a demonstration on the boulevard.

Soong said yesterday that recent comments by forensics expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺) regarding the shooting represented a warning signal from the US to Chen that the US could expose the "truth" about the shooting.

Soong was referring to a report by the Chinese-language China Times on Thursday, which quoted Lee as saying that Lu was the prime target of the shooting.

However, later on Thursday, Judy Cheng (程曉桂), head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau's Forensic Identification Division, quoted Lee as saying that the local media had misinterpreted his comments.

Lee said he could not infer that Lu was the main target of the shooter from traces left at the scene.
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