The defense committee of the legislature yesterday agreed on most articles of a compensation bill for over 4,500 people who volunteered to join the army in 1950.
The 4,500 volunteers, who were recruited by General Sun Li-jen (孫立人) in 1950, were suddenly disbanded a year later, possibly because President Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) had suspected Sun to be secretly plotting against him.
The committee reserved three articles in the bill for further negotiation, mainly over the amount of compensation per claimant and the rights of relatives of deceased claimants.
The proposed compensation for each claimant is NT$2 million, but it may be reduced to NT$1.5 million to win the acceptance of wavering defense committee lawmakers. At NT$2 million per claimant, total compensation is estimated to cost in the neighborhood of NT$9 billion. Around 4,500 persons or their surviving relatives qualify.
The soldiers requested the compensation on the grounds that their sudden dismissal in 1951 greatly disturbed their lives over the next five decades as they were told after their dismissal that they were subject to military re-call, KMT lawmaker Tseng Yung-chuan (
The Ministry of National Defense also objected to the proposed bill, saying the military cannot afford the compensation under its current budget.
Despite the objections, opposition lawmakers managed to get most of the articles in the proposed bill passed yesterday.
Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), a lawmaker with the DPP, said from a legal perspective, the 4,500 soldiers or their surviving relatives cannot now ask for compensation since such a request must be made within 15 years of the time of dismissal.
"But it is understandable why these people didn't make a claim for compensation before. No one dared raise the issue before because these people were recruited by General Sun, who was then the army chief," Chen said.
Issues related to General Sun were taboo for the more than three decades after 1955, as Sun was arrested by then President Chiang for a suspected coup attempt. Sun was kept under house arrest from 1955 to 1988. He died in 1990, two years after he regained his freedom.
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