Mon, Aug 14, 2000 page3

• Murder case requires French help

  Yang Tze-chin headed up the initial investigation into the murder of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng. He spoke with `Taipei Times' staff reporter Brian Hsu about the difficulties he encountered then, and the obstacles that may still stand in the way of solving the case

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  Taipei Times: Could you recall, from the beginning, your experiences investigating the Yin murder?

  Yang Tze-chin (楊子敬): At first, we [police] thought there was nothing unusual about the death of Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) [initially treated as an accidental drowning]. But 17 or 18 days after the discovery of Yin's body on Dec. 10, 1993, the police were asked to take over the investigation of the case due to the force of public opinion.

  I was then deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Higher authorities asked me to take charge of the investigation. I initially didn't want to take the case because of two main concerns. The first was that the crime scene could not be located or determined. My second concern was that in a case like the Yin murder, it's very difficult to make good progress if the investigation begins over a week after the fact. So, it was rather late to start.

  

  Photo of Yang Tze-chin upon his 1996 appointment as Commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  But I took on the job anyway having been instructed by higher authorities.

  During the investigation, we encountered difficulties of various sorts. Some came from the target of the investigation -- the navy. The navy was then more autonomous than it is now, and naval servicemen demonstrated a sense of superiority while dealing with the police.

  Other difficulties arose from the fact that we lacked any cooperation accord with international police organizations. A lot of clues in the Yin case, as well as certain weapons purchase irregularities -- which we judged could have been behind the murder -- were not examined, or not examined carefully enough, because people holding the information were abroad, and would not cooperate.

  TT: The investigation into the Yin case seemed to have centered around weapons purchase scandals. Was this general thrust of the investigation correct? Can we assume that if Yin's murderers are found, the murder case and all the associated scandals would be solved at once?

  Yang: The investigation of a crime case usually proceeds in two ways. One way is to start with evidence collected at the crime scene.

  This practice is commonly adopted by the police. But the crime scenes of the Yin case were nowhere to be found. So we had to try another procedure, which goes in the opposite direction.

  We sought to solve the murder through the cause -- scandals involving the purchase of weapons. This approach is more difficult because a lot of relevant clues could not be found until we were able to contact key witnesses living abroad.

  TT: The alleged kickback scandal related to the Lafayette frigate purchases between Taiwan and France may see a breakthrough in the near future. Former French foreign minister Roland Dumas recently said he would reveal people on the payroll from his own personal notes. Do you think Dumas will name all the names on his list, including those in Taiwan?

  Yang: It's hard to say. The case is very much like former Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei's (田中角榮) taking of bribes from Lockheed Martin in the late 1970s. Japanese authorities initially had difficulties collecting evidence about the case since the evidence could only be collected in the US. But they were compelled to probe into the case because of the huge publicity given to it by whistle-blowing US congressmen. Since they could not conduct the investigation in the US, they asked their US counterparts to do it on their behalf. The case was eventually solved under the joint efforts of the two countries.

  The question for us is whether we can receive similar cooperation from French authorities in the Lafayette case. If France is willing to provide us with all the necessary information, I think we will be able to solve the case.

  TT: What do you think of the prospects for success of the renewed investigation into the Yin murder and relevant weapons purchase scandals?

  Yang: I have very high hopes for the success of the renewed investigative efforts. The investigation is now being conducted by higher-level authorities. They also have more resources than we had. They do not have to take so much time and effort as we did to understand how weapons procurement was conducted by the navy.

  But I cannot guarantee they will succeed. We must remember the investigation was deficient in evidence from the very beginning. As a retired police detective, I think in retrospect that the police would have been better able to handle the case if we had been better equipped. People have been disputing, for instance, about whether a cassette tape left by Captain Yin had been demagnetized or not. The dispute could not be solved mainly because we do not have the right equipment to examine or restore the tape.

  Yang was head of a police task force investigating the Yin murder for the first six months after Yin's body was found. He was then promoted to marine police chief and later Criminal Investigation Bureau commissioner. He retired two years ago
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