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Chen daughter travel request rejected
 

‘UNIMAGINABLE’: Former president Chen Shui-bian’s daughter had hoped to travel to the US with her three children to study, however prosecutors rejected the request

By Shelley Huang, Mo Yan-chih and Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTERS
Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009, Page 1


District prosecutors yesterday rejected a request from former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), to have her travel restrictions lifted, ruining her plans to study in the US with her three children.

Prosecutors rejected Chen ­Hsing-yu’s request “to ensure that the litigation process goes smoothly,” said Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村), spokesperson for the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.

“If the defendant wishes to do so, she may appeal,” Lin said.

Lin Chih-chung (林志忠), Chen Hsing-yu’s defense attorney, said she would appeal the decision to the Taipei District Court.

Lin filed a petition with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office requesting that Chen Hsing-yu’s travel restrictions be lifted so that she could complete school ­registration in the US.

Lin Chih-chung relayed Chen Hsing-yu’s message that if prosecutors were concerned about her laundering money while in the US, she would be willing to have her passport held by overseas authorities after she entered the country.

Other options she put on the table included leaving one or all of her children in Taiwan to show her sincerity about coming back to the country after finishing registration, her lawyer said.

“[Chen Hsing-yu] has been ­planning to study in the US for two or three years,” Lin Chih-chung said. “She has already admitted to her [perjury] charges, there is no reason to keep her here [in Taiwan].”

When Chen Hsing-yu found out that her request had been rejected, she broke down, he said.

In response, Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) said she would not interfere with individual cases nor would she give any special instructions regarding the case, adding that authorities would do everything according to the law.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政), meanwhile, said the ministry, as well as representative offices and embassies abroad do not have the right or obligation to keep a person’s passport while they are traveling abroad, saying such an idea would be “unimaginable.”

Prosecutors placed travel restrictions on Chen Hsing-yu on June 6, three days after she was charged with giving false testimony during investigations into the former first family for corruption and money laundering.

She was barred from leaving the country last Tuesday, after she, her husband, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), and her brother, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), admitted to giving false testimony.

Presidential Office Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) promised to present a letter from Chen Shui-bian about his daughter to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

The president, however, would not interfere with the judicial system in response to Chen Shui-bian’s call to allow his daughter to travel, Chan said before attending a meeting at Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters.

Chan met Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) yesterday morning at the Presidential Office. Wu expressed concern about Chen Shui-bian’s letter to Ma.

In the letter, the former president said barring his daughter from leaving the country was illegal and unreasonable, and added that his daughter might develop a mental disorder or try to commit suicide because of the restrictions.

Chan said the Presidential Office had received the letter, and would present it to the president even though it was unlikely the president would take any action.

“As far as I understand, the president will not interfere with the judiciary directly because the establishment of an independent judicial system is not easy,” Chan said.

Wu also relayed DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) concerns about the custody system and the government’s respect of human rights during his meeting with Chan, and presented a written statement on the issues.

Chan said he would give the statement to Ma when the president returns from his trip to Central America, adding that Ma was still interested in meeting Tsai and discussing such issues with her face to face.

Commenting on the letter, KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) criticized the former president, saying that Chen Shui-bian was trying to manipulate his case.

KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) urged Chen Shui-bian to plead guilty as soon as possible instead of resorting to all kinds of “tricks” to influence the case.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) criticized the decision by Taipei prosecutors

“All of Chen’s family is barred from leaving the country. The public believes they are facing political persecution,” DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) told a press conference yesterday.

He said the party cared about Chen Hsing-yu and was sympathetic to her cause, adding the party considered the ban unnecessary.

Chen Hsing-yu was not a major player in the Chen family case. The ban had hit her seriously and affected her career, and the party hoped prosecutors could reconsider the decision, the spokesman added.

He said the DPP requested that the government amend the Criminal Procedure Code soon, limiting the court’s right to detain defendants, particularly before their trials have begun.

At a separate setting, DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said the DPP caucus had sympathy for Chen Hsing-yu.

When prosecutors investigated President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) over his use of special allowances during his time as Taipei mayor, prosecutors never summoned Ma’s daughters for questioning or prohibited them from leaving the country, but allowed them to stay abroad during the investigation, Lai said, adding prosecutors treated former president Chen and Ma with different standards.
 


 

Parents spark row over Chen grandson
 

RESERVATION OF EDUCATION: Posters on Bo Ai Elementary School’s online bulletin board say they don’t want their kids to go to the same school as ‘convicts’ children’
 

By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009, Page 3


Bo Ai Elementary School in Taipei said yesterday that it would not discriminate against any student, although several teachers and parents have voiced opposition to former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) grandson Chao Yi-an (趙翊安) being allowed to enroll at the school.

“Any child whose household record is registered within the district of the school is welcome to attend,” Wang Jen-yu (王壬佑), director-general of the school’s academic affairs department, told reporters.

“If Chao Yi-an enrolls in the school, the school authorities will ensure that administrative impartiality is maintained. We also hope that teachers will treat him the same as other students, without discrimination,” Wang said.

Chao Yi-an is the son of Chen’s daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), and her husband, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘).

School principal Su Tsai-tien (蘇再添) said he respected the right of Chao’s parents to choose the best school for their son, adding that the school would welcome Chao Yi-an if his parents decided to bring him there.

The six-year-old Chao Yi-an has reached the minimum school age in accordance with the National Education Act (國民教育法) and is legally entitled to enroll in the school.

However, several users of the school’s online message board who identified themselves as teachers and parents whose children are pupils at the school voiced objections to the possibility of the boy’s enrollment.

“I have been worried that my child will make friends with bad classmates, but I feel relieved, because your school will serve as a gatekeeper,” a user with the screen name “a parent of a student” said.

“Children of corrupt convicts [sic] like Chao Yi-an should not be allowed to attend the school. I don’t want my child to go to the same school as convicts’ children,” the user said in a message posted last Thursday.

The school has issued a statement saying that it would never discriminate against students based on their sex or social, economic or political background.

Taipei City Councilor Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) yesterday confronted Taipei City Department of Education officials at the school, saying that Chao Yi-an’s registration notice had been mailed to the former president instead of his parents.

“I think you are deliberately ­giving them a hard time. Why did you send Chao Yi-an’s registration notice to a person [at the detention center] in Tucheng [土城]?” Chuang said.

In response, the officials said the notice should have been sent to Chao Yi-an’s parents, although the school usually mails such documents to the head of a household.

The officials promised to review the school’s procedure.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said the boy should be spared the political wrangling of adults.

“Even if [his grandfather] made mistakes, the child is innocent,” Lo said.

 


 

DPP head urges rights watchdogs to support Chen
 

CALL FOR HELP: The DPP chairwoman sent a letter to Freedom House, Amnesty International and several embassies, asking them to support a fair legal system
 

By Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009, Page 3


Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday released the contents of a letter she wrote to international human rights groups requesting their support for former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) judicial rights.

In the letter, written in English, Tsai casts doubt on the impartiality of the judiciary, saying “instead of growing public confidence in the government’s efforts to prosecute official corruption, abuses of the system … are eroding public credibility in judicial institutions.”

She added that the public was losing faith in the judiciary.

Tsai says that continued detention of the former president “during the investigation period and trial is sowing the seeds of long-term public unrest and division,” adding that “we are appealing, therefore, for [former] president Chen’s human rights to be respected by the judiciary and for his immediate release.”

Tsai said the investigation against Chen was not an isolated case.

“I am also concerned that many more defendants have been subjected to similar treatment,” the DPP chairwoman said.

Tsai said that “violations in the confidentiality of the investigation” against the former president, “and the selective leaking of unverified information regarding the specifics of the case to politicians and the press further indicate a failure of law enforcement institutions to protect the rights of the defendant during the trial process.”

“I have repeatedly urged the government to take seriously the responsibility of protecting the fundamental rights of the defendant, and to refrain from any political interference in the judicial process that insults the integrity and basic rights of our former president. The fairness of president Chen’s trial will be indicative of Taiwan’s democratic progress, and the Taiwanese people will not tolerate growing abuses in the system,” the letter adds.

Asking for help from what she refers to as Taiwan’s “international friends,” she called on “those of you who have stood with us in the past through the more difficult years of fighting for democracy and freedom in Taiwan to continue to stand with us as we demand a fair and just legal system.”

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Department of International Affairs Director Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said the letter had been forwarded to organizations such as Freedom House, Amnesty International, the embassies and representative offices of foreign countries in Taiwan and a number of prominent individuals who care about Taiwan.
 


 

 


 

Human rights in cross-strait ties
 

By Hong Chi-chang 洪奇昌
Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009, Page 8


Last Dec. 10 was the 60th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It also marked the day that Charter 08 was co-signed and released in China by Chinese dissident and Tiananmen pro-democracy movement veteran Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) and more than 300 lawyers, authors, academics and artists.

The signatories also established a Web site that provided people around the world with a chance to sign the document online.

The Chinese government’s power is based in direct social control and oppression.

From the suppression of the Tibetan independence and the Falun Gong (法輪功) movements to the recent announcement that all personal computers sold in China must have the Green Dam Youth Escort software installed, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule is based on this thinking.

This is why the online co-signing of Charter 08 was disrupted from the start and why it was eventually brought to a sudden end.

Charter 08 calls for a modern political framework that includes adopting democracy, a federated republic and constitutional government, along with recognition of the universal values of freedom, equality and human rights.

In Taiwan, the dangwai movement two decades ago and its demands for democratization and the end of martial law have rendered these concepts natural and unsurprising.

However, a few days ago, the Chinese government arrested Liu “in accordance with the law” on the grounds that he had incited the overthrow of the government.

Coincidentally, on almost the same day, Wang Yi (王毅), the director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, was visiting the US and openly and rudely stated in a meeting with US think tank members that Taiwan was an internal matter for China.

A week earlier, on June 19, Wang told a Taiwanese reporter that cross-strait relations had started with simpler issues but would move on to more complex matters, which suggested that political issues will come up in future cross-strait talks.

During an interview with Singaporean media early last month, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) also said that if he were reelected in 2012, he would “not rule out cross-strait talks touching on political issues” in those cases “where there is an urgent need for talks.”

It is frightening to compare what Chinese officials have said about the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the Chinese government’s suppression of Charter 08 with what Taiwan’s government has said and done on cross-strait issues following talks with the CCP.

Cross-strait talks can and should be held. However, a consensus between the ruling and opposition parties and public opinion cannot be downplayed.

Now that Wang is claiming that Taiwan is China’s internal concern, Ma’s preference for realism and “mutual non-denial” at the second meeting between Chinese and Taiwanese representatives in November last year has become wishful thinking

Prior to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre last month, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi met 10 activists from the Chinese democracy movement because of her concern for human rights.

In recent years, human rights groups and influential individuals from around the world have urged China to pay more attention to human rights and release political dissidents.

The Chinese authorities, however, are exploiting the nation’s growing economic power to have others ignore these issues.

Taiwan has a Constitution that guarantees human rights, freedom, democracy and the rule of law.

We also have many culturally creative people, and people with brave and daring ideas. In engaging China, we should be confident and proud of these things, and the government should draw a line it is not willing to go beyond.

The Chinese who drafted and co-signed Charter 08 include non-governmental elites and prominent spiritual leaders who represent a rational and passionate voice for freedom, democracy and human rights and the hope that the government of China, not just its infrastructure, can modernize.

Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉), an assistant research fellow at the Preparatory Office of the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, recently said that if the ideals of the pan-green camp can one day be embraced by the more advanced and forward-looking members of Chinese society, the pan-green camp would then be able to directly influence every aspect of cross-strait relations.

Everything must be taken step by step. I do not just hope that the 23 million Taiwanese will continue to progress, but also that one day the 1.3 billion Chinese will be able to enjoy democracy, freedom and human rights.

Hong Chi-chang is a former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation and a former DPP legislator.

 

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