Lawmakers yesterday criticized government officials for what they said was a failure to provide evidence or to identify those who are to be held accountable for the police crackdown on protesters at the Executive Yuan compound on March 24.
The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee’s task force for investigating the police crackdown on the protesters who stormed into the Executive Yuan was established on March 27 and is tasked with retrieving CCTV footage and other relevant materials, such as telephone records and police log books from the Executive Yuan and the police.
The committee held its third meeting yesterday.
However, before the interpellation, Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) asked why the task force’s second meeting on April 10 was not broadcast live as other committee meetings are and should be.
The video recording of the meeting was also not placed on the Legislative Yuan’s Web site.
The usual broadcasting procedure was reportedly blocked due to the objection of the legislature’s Conference Department and Legislative Research Bureau, which said that the meeting was not open to the public because it involved documents which can only be viewed by the task force’s members.
“Since when does the bureau’s decision override a committee’s resolution?” Tuan asked.
DPP Legislator and committee convener Chen Chih-mai (陳其邁) contacted the legislature’s secretary-general and deputy secretary-general to discuss the matter and proposed that bureau officials face legislators.
The calls were unanswered and the proposal suspended.
None of the materials or information requested, except the estimated loss of the Executive Yuan appraised at NT$3 million (US$100,000), was provided by officials at the meeting.
National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) said the evidence has been handed over to the Taipei District Court.
DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said that the videotape evidence, as the Executive Yuan’s report for the committee said, “does not include the Executive Yuan’s building,” and is limited to footage from surveillance cameras on surrounding streets.
“There are first-hand accounts saying that police vandalized the restroom doors. Are you going to blame students for all the damage without proof? And we would also like to know who really ate the suncakes [which Executive Yuan Deputy Secretary-General Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇) claimed were eaten by intruding protesters],” she said.
She also criticized police for requesting hospitals and fire departments to provide records of people who checked in to the hospital’s emergency unit following the forceful eviction of protesters on March 24.
Yu challenged Wang’s claim that the move was aimed at investigating victims of police violence, saying that the injured students were being summoned as suspects.
“They were informed that if they did not show up, a warrant for their arrest would be issued. Do you issue an arrest warrant to a witness?” Yu asked.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) labeled the collection of protesters’ fingerprints and other possible evidence by police after the protesters left the Legislative Yuan a violation of the legislature’s regulations.
She called for all “illegally obtained evidence” to be destroyed.
Kuan also said the police’s continuing barricades around the government buildings were “tantamount to imposing martial law.”
Kuan said the barricades have not been set for a particular event, against a particular group of people or in a particular time period.
“In this case it can only be classed as so-called peacekeeping without a foreseeable end,” Kuan said.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) criticized Wang for not being able to identify who should be held accountable for injuring Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) during the police crackdown.
“How can we rely on the police for public security if they cannot even find out who injured one of the nation’s legislative representatives?” Yao said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods