Mon, Oct 23, 2000 page1

• Hau defends himself over warship deal

  LAFAYETTE PURCHASES Former chief of the general staff Hau Pei-tsun says he was only shopping for the best deal and did not violate navy policy when he advocated the purchase of French ships

  • By Brian Hsu / STAFF REPORTER
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  Responding to the Control Yuan's plan to impeach him for improperly deciding to buy Lafayette-class frigates 10 years ago, former chief of the general staff Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) yesterday said he had done nothing wrong.

  "Every decision I made while chief of the general staff was reported to then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). As for my trip to France in 1989 [for talks on the Lafayette deal], I reported to Lee not only before my departure but also after I returned," Hau said.

  "The decision-making process for a military purchase is not only made from the `top-down.' It also uses the `bottom-up' approach. The two methods are often used together," he said.

  

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  "I am not fazed by the false charges made against me. I don't want to re-emphasize how much I have contributed to the country during my term as chief of the general staff. But we should not judge events of the past by current standards," he said.

  Hau made the statements yesterday at a press conference he called at his Taipei office, responding to plans by the Control Yuan to impeach him and several other retired generals for neglecting their administrative responsibility regarding the Lafayette purchase.

  The Control Yuan feels that the decision-making process behind the purchase was flawed.

  It is the second time that Hau has defended himself against charges related to his role in the Lafayette deal. His last press conference on the issue was held early last month.

  Hau was accused of arbitrarily deciding to buy six Lafayette-class frigates from France in 1989, overturning the initial plan of the navy to buy 16 warships from South Korea.

  The accusation was based partially on a message, which Hau ordered his aids to send back to Taiwan in May 1989, while he was in France. The message is considered to be what motivated the navy to drop the South Korean deal in favor of the French.

  Hau was also faulted for violating the "high-low mix" policy the navy had established. This policy involved combining large and smaller ships to form groups that have better ability to survive and maneuver during combat. The main vessels of the ROC fleet were to be the 3,000-tonne Yang-class in concert with the smaller 2,000-tonne South Korean ships. The Lafayette-class ships are over 3,600 tonnes.

  Hau's advocacy of the Lafayette-class frigates, rather than the lighter "Weishan" ships from South Korea, went against the policy of the time.

  At yesterday's press conference, Hau explained that in the message he did not order anyone to terminate plans to buy fighting ships from South Korea.

  "In the message, I only told authorities concerned to put off plans to buy South Korean-made warships," Hau said.

  "I did it for the sake of finding out which country could provide us with the best package. We do the same thing when we go shopping," he said.

  During his last press conference on the issue, Hau had said: "Without the Lafayette deal, Taiwan would not have been able to get the Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes. Without the Mirage deal, Taiwan would not have been able to get the F-16s from the US."
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