Thu, Mar 28, 2002 page3

• TSU says PFP must be punished

  TREASON ACCUSATIONS The pro-Taiwan party wants its ideological nemesis held accountable for the sensitive national security information reported in the media

  • By Lin Mei-chun / STAFF REPORTER
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  The PFP was the first organization to have obtained information about the secret accounts in the National Security Bureau (NSB), and it should be held responsible for the media's disclosure of the sensitive information, according to TSU lawmakers.

  The lawmakers provided a list that, according to them, proves that the PFP acquired the information about the secret funds even earlier than the media did. They accused the PFP of freely spreading sensitive information and in the process undermining national security.

  TSU lawmaker Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) said that PFP chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) has known about the NSB funds for more than half a year, much longer than the media has.

  "In January, the media reported that Soong said that the secret funds in the NSB were definitely worth more than NT$3 billion. In March, newspapers reported that Soong said he had received information about the NSB secret funds in June last year," he said.

  When Soong returned from the US earlier this month, he told a KMT lawmaker who was on the same flight with him, that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) would be in big trouble this time, according to Lo.

  All these facts show that Soong has had knowledge of the entire matter for a long period of time. "What Soong said today is a flat lie," said Lo, referring to a meeting of Soong with a group of Taiwanese residing in Japan. Soong told the visitors that he is a total outsider in the NSB issue and that "whoever opposes investigations into the secret accounts is the mastermind behind the disclosure."

  Refuting the statements that he also played a part in setting up the accounts, Soong said he knew nothing about the funds.

  When the accounts were established in 1994, he had left his post as the KMT's secretary general, Soong added.

  Soong served as Taiwan's provincial governor since 1993.

  He also dismissed accusations from TSU lawmakers, who claim that he had contacted the NSB's former cashier chief, Colonel Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍), who is wanted for allegedly embezzling NT$192 million.

  Liu fled overseas last September, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

  The TSU has been at war with the PFP since last week after the China Times and Next magazine reported that two secret accounts, with a combined value of NT$3.5 billion, were established under Lee's administration. The funds were kept secret from legislative supervision, and allegedly turned into Lee's "private stash."

  The reports cited information that is believed to have been provided by Liu.

  Both parties have started trading accusations as they came out in defense of their mentors -- former president Lee and PFP chairman James Soong.

  The TSU is convinced that evidence shows Soong to be the mastermind behind the disclosure.

  PFP lawmakers said that they have also received a copy of the disk in question -- the disk with the information on which the China Times and Next magazine based their articles -- and they said that 90 percent of the information has not yet been published.

  The PFP lawmakers said they have handed in the disk to the Control Yuan, the country's supreme watchdog body, for further investigation.

  But the TSU believed the PFP is still in possession of a big part of the information, and is ready to disseminate it to the media at any time.
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