The Control Yuan yesterday confirmed that records of interviews with former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) quoted him as saying that he had feared a coup d'etat if he rejected the proposal of his premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) and top military officials to buy Lafayette-class frigates.
In response, the Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Huang Sui-sheng (黃穗生) told a routine press conference, yesterday, "The armed forces belong to the whole country, not to any single party or individual. There is absolutely no chance of a coup d'etat happening in Taiwan."
Hau issued a statement yesterday accusing the former president of "using [the fear of] a coup d'etat as an excuse."
A Chinese-language newspaper revealed the classified internal interview records yesterday. According to the records made on Nov. 11 last year, Control Yuan members recorded that while answering questions about the decision-making process of purchasing French-made Lafayette-class frigates rather than the initially preferred Ulsan-class vessels from South Korea, Lee told the task force, "How could I say no to them? They had already decided. If I refused to let them do so, it was entirely possible that there would have been a coup d'etat."
In response to the report, the President of the Control Yuan Fredrick Chien (錢復) had a meeting with members of the task force which was responsible for the investigation of the frigate scandal at that time and held a news briefing to clarify the matter afterward.
Chao Ron-yaw (趙榮耀), who spoke for the task force, said, "The record of the interview with Lee quotes him making such remarks." Adding a note of caution, however, he added, "But, the Control Yuan members who conducted the interview could not recall whether the former president made such remarks or not."
Declining to comment further, Chao however, added that since the document is classified, the Control Yuan would probe how the newspaper got the document and who might be responsible for their disclosure.
The report quoted Lee's remarks in the document as saying that, in 1991, when the navy was negotiating with the French about the price of the Lafayette frigates, "They nevertheless reported to me about the progress we made on buying Korean-made naval vessels." It also quoted him saying, "These people lied to me whenever they had a chance."
According to the news story, Lee accused Hau and former navy commander-in-chief Yeh Chang-tung (葉昌桐) of deceiving him because they owned the power of military.
The interviews were conducted on Nov. 11 last year in Lee's house. Kang Ning-hsiang (
Lee couldn't be reached yesterday to comment on the matter.
Hau released a statement saying that he felt "regret" and was "distressed."
He stressed that as president, Lee had the power to make the final decision. "But he used to say he knows nothing about this, and now he uses a coup d'etat as an excuse. I feel sorry for our armed forces for having such a commander-in-chief."
Hau also said he protested what Lee said. "Launching a coup is a serious crime involving treason. If Lee suspected that I had any intention of doing so, he should have investigated me immediately. How come he honored me with a national medal when I retired from the post as premier."
The investigation report released this March by the Control Yuan contained no mention of this part of Lee's interview records.
Chao stressed that opinions on which parts of the interview records should have been included in the report do not reflect the task force's conclusions about the scandal. "Our conclusions about the scandal were shown in the formal report released this March."
In the investigation report, the task force concluded that former premier Hau and top former military officials usurped the president's supreme authority over defense policy and concealed from the president policy changes that they made in the process.
The MND said it couldn't comment on the report until it had done its own investigation and the Control Yuan published the result of its investigations into certain military officials it proposed to impeach in connection with the scandal.
Without commenting on whether there was any possibility for a coup happening during Lee's presidency, the MND stressed the current state of the military, saying the armed forces were bound by the constitution and relevant laws to protect the country and be loyal to the president. The relevant laws are the Defense Law and the Organizational Law of the MND, which came into effect long after the Lafayette purchase.
Retired military officials told the Taipei Times of threats of a coup from military leaders in thrall to General Hau during the early period of Lee's presidency.
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