Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said in a memoir made public yesterday that former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) would have complicated the investigation into the 2004 attempt on their lives had she gone public with her theory that she was the main target.
The 12,000-word memoir, made available by Chen’s office yesterday, will appear in this week’s edition of Neo Formosa Weekly.
Chen said he believed there were two bullets, with the first one hitting the windshield and then Lu, while the second one grazed his stomach.
“I told her that no matter what happened, it was absolutely unlikely that the bullet hit you before it hit me,” Chen said.
On March 19, 2004, a bullet grazed Chen’s stomach and another hit Lu’s knee as they were campaigning in Tainan. The pan-blue camp said the shooting was staged to win sympathy votes. It later became known as the “319 Incident.”
The Tainan Prosecutor’s 胝ffice concluded in 2005 that it was the work of Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), a lone shooter who was found dead 10 days after the incident.
Lu later published a book, Putting 319 in Perspective: One Truth, One Taiwan, in which she said she doubted that Chen Yi-hsiung was the lone shooter and suggested that people betting on the results of the election could have backed the assassination attempt. Other possible culprits behind the incident were China, the pan-blue or even the pan-green camp, she said.
Chen said in his memoir that after Lu was hit, she told her good friend turned 計olitical commentator, Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏), that she had taken a bullet for the president and the people of Taiwan. She even telephoned then-Presidential Office secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and asked him to back her story, Chen said.
“Luckily, Chiou did not make such an announcement, or the result of the subsequent investigation would have been different,” he said. “It would have complicated the matter for no reason.”
He said he was surprised and upset when he learned that all his campaign activities were canceled after he was shot. However, he gave in because his wife strongly opposed any more campaigning, he said.
Chen said his election rival, 耶hinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Lien Chan (連戰), was waiting at the presidential residence to see him, while Lien’s running mate, James Soong (宋楚瑜), was on his way to see Lu.
Chen said he turned Lien away because former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-虐siung (林義雄) was with him at the time.
Lu issued a statement yesterday rebutting Chen’s description of events.
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