A DPP lawmaker yesterday called on the Ministry of National Defense (MND) to face up to the existence of homosexuality in the military and provide greater protection to servicemen from harassment by superiors or peers of the same sex.
Lawmaker Lin Chin-hsin (林進興), a new member of the defense committee of the legislature, said the MND has done a lot to protect female military personnel but not enough to protect male personnel, especially conscripts.
"There are many more homo-sexuals in the military than could be imagined. The gays in the military range in rank from soldiers to two-star generals," Lin said.
"The military is an isolated environment. Cases of sexual harassment are not easily made known to people outside. It is necessary for the legislature to set up a committee to handle and investigate sexual harassment in the military," he said.
Lin made the remarks as part of a news release his office sent out yesterday.
An aide to Lin, who declined to be identified, said the harassment the committee refers to should broken down into three types: male against female, male against male and female against male.
But Lin's main concern is male military personnel's sexual harassment against subordinates or peers of the same sex, adding that the other two types of harassment have already received enough attention from the MND.
According to ministry statistics, recorded cases of sexual harassment in the military from 1996 to 2001 numbered only 64, with eight falling into the category of rape, the aide said.
The figure may represent only the tip of the iceberg since reported cases are usually exposed by lawmakers or local elected officials rather than by the military itself, the aide said.
"It is necessary for the military to establish a transparent and just mechanism to handle cases of sexual harassment of servicemen by superiors or peers of the same sex," he said.
According to a defense official, homosexuals in the military are concentrated among officers, which could explain why many of the perpetrators of male-against-male harassment go undiscovered.
In the army, a company leader with a homosexual inclination may choose a conscript he deems attractive as his personal page or "errand boy."
There have been discoveries of company leaders forcing their message aides to have sex with them.
Several years ago, the leader of an army brigade had been shot to death by an "errand boy" under his command, who he had compelled to have sex with him. Army investigations showed that the soldier did it because he could no longer stand mistreatment by the brigade leader.
The navy had also witnessed a similar case in 1994 as the commander on an offshore island committed suicide after his "secret lover," a conscript, threatened to expose their relationship.
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