Army officials yesterday refuted media reports that 14 rifle grenades belonging to an army unit in central Taichung County had been stolen during a joint-forces exercise in southern Pingtung County in May.
The reports said that the grenades had been hidden directly under the platform on which President Lee Teng-hui (
"The reports are totally ungrounded. It distorts the truth of the matter," said Army General Headquarters Spokesman Major General Ma Ying-chu (馬銀柱).
Ma made the statements at an army base in Taichung County in response to a front page report by the China Times Express which quoted Taipei prosecutors as giving details of the theft.
According to the report, a Taipei resident identified as Pan Ching-wen (
Pan, according to the China Times report, also told prosecutors that an additional 14 rifle grenades were scheduled to be stolen from the joint-forces exercise base in Taipei through a military official of a Taichung army unit which participated in the May drill.
Ma denied that there was any high-ranking military official involved in the alleged grenades theft, as was suggested by the report.
"The Taipei District Court Prosecutors' Office and the country's top watchdog agency, the Control Yuan, have launched an investigation into the case," Ma said.
"We are sure that there is no military official involved in the case. If there is, the army will handle it in accordance with the law."
"The army had indeed found 14 domestically-made M-31 rifle grenades abandoned at the joint-forces exercise site in Pingtung County's Hutoushan (虎頭山) area. But they were unexploded grenades and were discovered a long distance from President Lee's seat," Ma said.
"The 14 rifle grenades should pose no threat to the security of the public. But according to the military's used weapons disposal regulations, the army unit which used the grenades was apparently negligent in its duty of taking proper care of the unexploded grenades after the exercise," Ma said.
"That is the only fault of the military in this matter -- if there is any fault at all," he said.
As to other allegations made by Pan against the army, according to Ma, the allegations came as a result of misinformation.
"As we know, Pan only admitted to prosecutors that he picked up the two rifle grenades at the Hutoushan base, which is open to civilians during periods when the army is not using it," Ma said.
"The 14 other grenades he mentioned were found far away from the location he reportedly identified as the `hiding place.' In addition, they turned out to be just unexploded ordnance, which should be disposed of after the exercise," he said.
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