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Probe Lien shooting with ‘319’: Lu
By Vincent Y. Chao / Staff Reporter
Former vice president Annette Lu, second right, speaks at a
press conference yesterday on suggestions that a committee be set up to
investigate the election-eve shooting of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central
Committee member Sean Lien.
Photo: CNA
Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday pointed to a
possible connection between the election-eve shooting on Nov. 26 of Sean Lien
(連勝文) and the assassination attempt on her and former president Chen Shui-bian
(陳水扁) in 2004, saying investigators should take a close look into both.
Lien, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Committee member and son of
former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), was shot in the face while campaigning for
a KMT councilor candidate in Taipei County.
Although police say they are still looking into the motives of the alleged
gunman, who was arrested at the scene, Lu told a press conference that Sean
Lien’s shooting and the “319 shootings” — the assasination attempt occurred on
March 19, 2004 — should be investigated concurrently.
“Looking at both incidents together will help resolve some of the political
partisanship between the two political camps,” she said. “Otherwise, it will
only take another bullet [in a future election] to spark another political
[incident].”
Lu was shot as she stood beside Chen in an open-top election convoy in Tainan
City the day before the 2004 presidential election. One of the bullets hit Lu’s
knee, while another grazed the former president’s stomach.
While police immediately said following the incident that they did not believe
the shooting was political, there was speculation that the assassination attempt
was staged to win the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sympathy votes in the
tightly fought election.
Since not everybody accepted the results of an investigation into the shooting
conducted when the DPP was in power, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
administration should consider reopening the case in light of the attempt on
Sean Lien’s life, Lu said.
“Chen also agrees that a new investigation to find the truth should be held into
the 319 shooting,” Lu said, adding that Chen had told her he didn’t want to
“continue to live with the [controversy].”
Lu also said the 319 shooting was likely connected to a burgeoning underground
gambling network for Taiwanese elections.
The former vice president said Chen told her last week that while he did not
believe Sean Lien’s shooting had a major impact on the elections in Taipei and
Sinbei cities, the attempt likely cost DPP candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) the
Greater Taichung mayorship, which he lost to Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) by
about 2 percent of the vote.
“The biggest impact was in -Taichung and not in [the north]. Otherwise, Su would
very likely have won that election,” she said.
“This is why the police have an obligation to make the truth about the shooting
public as soon as possible,” she said.
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