Hearing attracts crowds of Chen supporters
　

UNFAIRLY JAILED: The former president’s court-appointed lawyers argued that the reasons for keeping him behind bars had ceased to exist once the trial started
　

By Shelley Huang and Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTERS
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009, Page 1
　

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention hearing yesterday attracted big crowds inside and outside the courtroom, including former Judicial Yuan vice president Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模), several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators and hundreds of the former president’s supporters.

Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) scheduled yesterday’s detention hearing so prosecutors and the defense could argue whether it is necessary to keep Chen detained at the Taipei Detention Center, where he has been held since Dec. 30 on corruption charges.

The judges will make a decision on Monday. Prosecutors argued that Chen should remain in detention, citing fears that he may flee the country or collude with witnesses.

Chen’s court-appointed lawyers yesterday said that it was unnecessary to keep Chen behind bars because the reason to extend detention no longer existed.

One of the court-appointed lawyers, Tseng Te-rong (曾德榮), argued that the investigation had concluded, and so there was no need for Chen to destroy evidence or collude with witnesses.

The prosecutors’ insistence on keeping Chen behind bars with no reason may be interpreted as a way of “detaining in order to force a confession,” he said.

“The defendant’s [Chen] choice to remain silent is his judicial right. This does not hinder the litigation from continuing,” Tseng said, adding that Chen had no motive to flee the country because his family had all been barred from leaving.

In response, the prosecution argued that Chen may jump bail even if the court set the bail at a large amount, using former Far Eastern Air Transport chairman Stephen Tsui (崔湧), who jumped bail last month, as an example to state their point.

“Even though Tsui’s bail was set at NT$90 million (US$3 million), this did not stop him from fleeing the country,” prosecutor Lin Yi-chun (林怡君) said.

Prosecutors also cited witness statements that said the former president had applied for a passport, as well as expressing plans to stay overseas long-term.

After hearing this, the former president broke his silence to argue in his own defense, criticizing prosecutors for misinterpreting witness statements.

“I didn’t tell [former presidential adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培)] that I planned to stay overseas long-term, only that I hoped to improve Taiwan’s foreign relations after I left office,” he said.

Chen said he applied for a passport because he did not need to use a passport in the eight years that he was president, so he had to renew his expired passport after he left office.

The incident was reported by the media and publicized, and he had no intention to keep it a secret, he said.

Throughout the hearing, the former president told Tsai to “listen to his conscience.”

Since his last detention hearing on May 7, Chen has declined to speak in his defense or answer questions in protest of what he calls an unfair judicial system.

Meanwhile, several DPP legislators showed their support for the former president at the hearing. However, minor arguments broke out between bailiffs and legislators, who were angry to discover that the number of seats open to the public was limited.

“Chen’s detention has seriously harmed his judicial rights,” DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said outside the courtroom.

He said prosecutors’ use of Tsui as an example to prove their point was “ridiculous to an extreme.”

The former Judicial Yuan vice president also condemned prosecutors for using Tsui as an example, saying that the method was very “unrefined.”

Cheng said none of the reasons for detention applied to Chen’s case, so “why keep [Chen] detained?”

He also expressed disappointment that judicial reform had not come very far.

Separately, outside the courtroom, hundreds of the former president’s supporters protested what they called an “illegal detention.”

Former DPP legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), one of the protest leaders, told the protesters that if the court did not decide to release Chen on Monday, they should rush in and “make the court shut down operations.”

The protesters gathered in front of the Ministry of Justice, carrying signs and yelling phrases such as, “Tsai Shou-hsun, go to hell” and “Justice not served.”

Joining the throng of Chen supporters nationwide who accused the justice system of failing to be impartial, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference yesterday that the court had no legal grounds to detain Chen further, and that he must be released immediately out of human rights considerations.

“The entire process has already spurred the public to speculate on the fairness of the system,” Tsai Ing-wen told the news conference, which was held at the same time as Chen’s hearing.

“If the court denies the defendant’s right to defend himself by keeping him locked up long term through the use of ridiculous and far-fetched reasons, it would be hard for the public to believe this was not a political maneuver or political persecution,” she said.

She said that at this point in the trial, the legal conditions for further detention, such as the possibility that Chen may flee the country, tamper with evidence or collude with witnesses, had all “ceased to exist.”

Tsai Ing-wen has not always been a conspicuous advocate for Chen’s release since his incarceration. Her silence had sparked indignation among many Chen supporters.

Late last month, she broke her silence and signed a petition along with a number of prominent legal academics calling for Chen’s immediate release. The DPP was not voicing its support for Chen’s claims of innocence, but was standing up for the right of all defendants and to highlight problems with Taiwan’s judicial system, she said.

The court rejected Chen’s last appeal because he published books, gave an interview to a foreign wire service without permission and applied to resume his DPP membership during his time in the detention center — all reasons that do not justify a prolonged detention, she said yesterday.

Pro-Chen supporters in various parts of the country also expressed their hope that Chen would be freed by launching a yellow ribbon campaign.

In Pingtung, more than 60 people, including lawmakers and city councilmen, gathered at the 228 Memorial Park to pray for Chen’s freedom. The crowd tied yellow ribbons on the trees in the park and said Chen’s plight was a sign of the eroding human rights in Taiwan.

Another group of 30-plus supporters held up white banners and tried to barge into the Taichung District Court to voice their support for Chen. The crowd dispersed peacefully about one hour later after the police barred them from entering the building.

The pro-independence Taiwan Nation Alliance is slated to hold a massive yellow ribbon rally tomorrow in 17 cities nationwide to stump for Chen’s innocence. Tsai told the press that she was not aware of the event but that “there are many other ways to support Chen” and the party would carefully weigh its options.

Detention system must be overhauled: panel
　

By Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009, Page 3

Panelists attending a seminar on pretrial detention yesterday called on the government to reform the detention system, which they said violated a suspect’s right to the presumption of innocence and also violated the right to a fair trial.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) allows prosecutors to request a suspect be detained for two months and to ask for an extension — for a maximum of two months — if they consider it necessary to continuing detaining a suspect, but there is no maximum detention length for suspects who face a sentence of more than 10 years if convicted.

OLD-FASHIONED

“Detention in felony cases and unlimited detentions of suspected criminals are an old-fashioned mindset and pose a serious challenge for human rights protection in modern states,” Chen Tze-lung (陳志龍), a professor of law at National Taiwan University, said at the seminar hosted by the Control Yuan.

“They especially run counter to the ideals of presumption of innocence and efficient processing of cases,” said Chen, who has published a paper reviewing the rationale behind the use detention in felony cases.

Former National Chung Hsing University president Huan Tong-shong (黃東熊), another panelist, agreed with Chen.

“The detention of suspects breaks human rights principles in the first place,” Huan said.

DEFENSE HINDERED

“It especially complicates the situation when it comes to felony suspects because it poses lots of difficulties for an attorney to effectively prepare a defense for the defendant,” he said.

Huan also suggested the government set up an exit mechanism for unfit prosecutors and judges.

“No matter how sound a system is, it is the abuse of power by persons that cause problems,” he said.

Huan said the detention system was similar to the UK’s.

But in the UK, 97 percent of detention cases were based on concerns that the suspects might flee, while in Taiwan, only 31 percent of detention cases were based on that reason, he said.

PRE-JUDGING

Taiwan Bar Association chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said that to detain a felony suspect whose case was before the court was tantamount to ruling that the suspect was guilty before trial.

“If a suspect is detained over alleged felonies, it’s hard to expect that judges would not have the mindset that the suspect is guilty,” Koo said.

China suspends Friday prayers
　

RESTRICTIONS: Local authorities ordered mosques in Urumqi, scene of the recent violent protests, shuttered to deter large, emotional gatherings of Muslim Uighurs

AP , URUMQI, CHINA
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009, Page 5

Mosques in riot-hit Urumqi were ordered to stay closed for Friday prayers in the wake of ethnic violence that has killed at least 156 people, an official said yesterday.

The prayers after midday are a focal point of the week for the minority Muslim Uighurs in Urumqi, and Chinese authorities took the rare step of restricting them in apparent attempts to deter any large, emotional gatherings at the mosques.

“For the sake of public safety all of the mosques have told people that there will be no Friday prayers and that people should stay at home today and pray,” said the official at the Yang Hang mosque in downtown Urumqi.

She said she was a government worker but refused to give her name.

Outside the mosque with its gold dome and twin minarets, people stopped to read a white paper notice canceling Friday prayers. One middle-aged Uighur woman who would not give her name said she thought the mosque should stay open.

“It’s not necessary to close it because everyone who enters the mosque is a Muslim. It will be safe,” she said.

“We just don’t have any power,” she added, then was pulled away by her husband.

Nearby, an elderly Han Chinese woman interrupted a foreign reporter before he could talk to two elderly Uighur women in long traditional dresses and headscarves.

“Of course, the mosque should be closed. Just look at all the damage that has been done,” the Han Chinese woman said in a loud voice.

“This is a patriotic move for the sake of the well-being of all the ethnic groups,” she said before stomping away without giving her name. The other two quietly walked away as well.

The violence in Urumqi began on Sunday when Uighurs clashed with police while protesting deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in another part of the country. The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows.

Riot police tried to restore order, and officials said 156 people were killed and more than 1,100 were injured.

Thousands of security forces have been patrolling the streets, but that wasn’t enough to keep vengeful Han Chinese mobs from hunting down Uighurs on Tuesday.

Top Chinese Communist Party leaders have said that ending the ethnic feuding was now “the most urgent task.”

An official at the China Islamic Association in Beijing, who gave only his surname Jin, said mosques in China had been ordered to suspend Friday prayers before, during the country’s outbreak of SARS in 2003.

“Our religion is quite flexible, so it’s possible to cancel for the benefit of everyone,” Jin said.

The head of the association, Chen Guangyuan (陳廣元), in an excerpt from a speech posted on the association’s Web site yesterday, said the violence was caused by “evil people” intend on causing ethnic splits.

“Don’t be fooled by evil people,” Chen said.

Uighurs generally practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam that was prevalent in Central Asia under Soviet rule. More militant and austere forms of Islam have made inroads in recent decades. But the government controls the appointments of clerics, helping to deny a pulpit to imams who disagree with official policies.

Restrictions on their religion already rankle among Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who have complained about the influx of Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of China’s population, in the remote western region.

At the Liudaowan mosque in Urumqi, the imam, Memeti Imam Damala, said the mosque received a notice on Thursday night saying not to hold prayers.

There’s still no transparency

Saturday, Jul 11, 2009, Page 8

Since the first round of cross-strait talks under the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) presidency last year, the pace of developments in the Taiwan Strait has some unnerved, and others — mostly those eyeing investment opportunities — delighted.

Were the government’s high-speed pursuit of economic opportunity rooted in democratic processes, there would be less room for criticism. But cross-strait reforms — regardless of their potential effect on Taiwan’s independence and the livelihoods of Taiwanese — are being decided behind closed doors, and with no public or legislative oversight.

This has been the case across the board, from the inking of far-reaching deals between the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait to the unclear terms of Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO’s International Health Regulations and its participation at the World Health Assembly.

The lack of transparency amounts to a repudiation of democratic principles.

But this is the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legacy, and the KMT’s creation of a communication channel with the Chinese Communist Party in 2005 is a case in point. The platform, formed under the guidance of former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), typifies the party’s tactics and was a sign of things to come.

The potential for party-to-party talks to conflict with and undermine the goals and dignity of the government did not concern the KMT; seeking workable ties with its one-time foe was paramount.

Now, the KMT is hoping to cast a democracy-friendly veneer onto a platform that was close to treacherous during the party’s time in opposition. To this end, the KMT has urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to participate in this weekend’s cross-strait forum in Hunan.

But with the exception of former DPP legislator Hsu Jung-shu (許榮淑), the DPP isn’t biting. And now that the party has instituted a ban on attending the forum, Hsu faces censure and potential penalties if she attends.

A former Council of Agriculture minister, Fan Chen-tzung (范振宗), has also accepted the KMT’s invitation, but having left the DPP and supported the KMT in the past two presidential elections, his decision was not a shock.

That even one member of the DPP would accept an invitation bodes ill for a party that professes to seek greater transparency and supervision of cross-strait developments. For this reason, the DPP ban against members participating was a necessary signal.

Faced with friction within the KMT, Ma has no doubt had his own concerns about the forum. But while the president may have more confidence in such meetings as he prepares to take the helm of the KMT, the party-to-party platform remains a channel outside any democratic oversight framework.

Cross-strait policy “will not have enough strength and representation if only the KMT is participating in [its] establishment,” Ma has said.

His words sum up a problem that has plagued cross-strait affairs since he took office and which he has a responsibility to mend. But given that Ma thinks these forums are an appropriate location for the government’s cross-strait policies to take shape, the chance of change is unrealistic.

The need to be loud and clear about Xinjiang
　

By Su Tseng-chang 蘇貞昌
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009, Page 8

A few days ago, the Chinese government ordered the use of tanks and machine guns in a bloody suppression of members of the Uighur ethnic group who were requesting equal treatment.

By China’s account, 156 people died, 1,088 were injured and more than 1,400 people were arrested.

The streets of Xinjiang are filled with a chilling sense of fear, and with the truth yet to be revealed, the situation remains unstable.

Uproar has resulted within the international community, rebuking China for ignoring basic human rights and using violent, bloody methods to suppress the protests.

Apart from expressing grave concern at the suppression of human rights in Xinjiang, foreign governments and rights groups are asking China to exercise restraint, make the truth known, conduct a transparent investigation and stop violent incidents from recurring.

Amid the global outcry, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been silent, even more silent than normal, and has acted as if the whole thing never happened.

When it comes to the Ma administration, many things never happen.

When people around the globe expressed support for the Chinese who demanded democratic reforms by signing Charter 08 (零八憲章) — and were suppressed, imprisoned and charged — only Ma remained silent.

While people around the globe supported Tibetans who were resisting Chinese oppression, only Ma refused to allow a visit to Taiwan by the Dalai Lama.

With people around the globe calling on the Chinese government to rehabilitate the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and to allow exiled students to return to China, Ma was the only person to release an open statement commending the Chinese government for making improvements in human rights.

Freedom, democracy and human rights are universal values and precious assets — and Taiwan has all of them. The way in which Taiwanese have upheld democracy and human rights has been recognized and praised by the international community.

However, after becoming president, Ma has not dared to discuss democracy and human rights with China; indeed, he is fearful of insulting China and thus no longer mentions the Tiananmen Square Massacre, refuses to allow the Dalai Lama into Taiwan and will not even meet with Chinese democracy activists.

With the whole world rebuking China over the recent death toll and bloody suppression of the Xinjiang protests, Ma is yet to say a single thing on the matter.

If Ma doesn’t dare speak out, Taiwanese should speak up. Otherwise, Ma’s silence will be viewed as the silence of every Taiwanese.

To protect human rights, to allow the world to hear the real voice of the Taiwanese people and to make sure that the universal values of freedom, democracy and human rights are not compromised during cross-strait exchanges, we should support the Uighurs and their humble hopes for equal treatment, and demand that the Chinese government cease its racist treatment of ethnic minorities.

We should also demand that Taiwan’s government make its stance on the matter crystal clear.

Taiwan is a free and democratic nation, so we should not exclude ourselves from the company of those nations expressing their support for the Uighurs.

Su Tseng-chang is a former premier.

Shooting for the stars
　

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the images of Clive Arrowsmith, photographer for the Free Tibet Campaign in Taiwan, could fill a library

By Eric Shih
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Saturday, Jul 11, 2009, Page 16

　

VIEW THIS PAGE

Clive Arrowsmith snaps pictures of film directors Cheng Wen-tang (鄭文堂) and Wu Mi-sen (吳米森) standing in the middle of a Taipei photo studio forming a “T” with their hands. The shutter on the high-end Hasselblad camera clicks with each shot, the captured images showing up instantly on a large computer monitor in the corner of the room.

The renowned London-based fashion photographer spent a week in Taiwan in May to take pictures for a Free Tibet awareness campaign organized by Guts United, Taiwan, which culminates with a concert today in Taipei. Arrowsmith was also the photographer for the “T for Tibet” campaign during last year’s Summer Olympics

“To have Clive ... be the official photographer of all the campaign ... it means a lot,” says the organizer of Free Tibet, Freddy Lim (林昶佐), also the front man of the death metal band, Chthonic (閃靈). Having the same photographer for both, Lim says, links the drive for Tibetan freedom in Taiwan with the larger global effort.

Some of the other celebrities photographed by Arrowsmith for Free Tibet are singer-actress Enno Cheng (鄭宜農), writer Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧), SET-TV news chief editor and anchor Chen Ya-lin (陳雅琳), folk singer Panai (巴奈), and Chthonic, Aphasia (阿飛西雅), Kook (庫克), LTK Commune (濁水溪公社) and FireEx (滅火器).

Arrowsmith’s photos for the campaign have since been posted around Taipei, with a large Free Tibet poster featuring Lim and his bandmate and wife Doris Yeh (葉湘怡) displayed at the Vieshow Cinema Square in Xinyi. The images have been broadcast on platform monitors at Taipei’s MRT stations.

Arrowsmith is one of the few photographers who take portraits of the Dalai Lama in an official capacity. He’s also taken portraits of countless other celebrities over the past three decades. A longtime photographer for British Vogue magazine, he shot the Pirelli calendars for 1991 and 1992. A quick flip through a draft of his soon-to-be published book is like going through a who’s who of the entertainment world.

Just a sampling shows actors Michael

Caine and Helena Bonham Carter, musicians George Harrison and David Bowie, writers Hunter S. Thompson and Roald Dahl, naturalist David Attenborough and cooking show host Nigella Lawson.

Behind each of the photographs, Arrowsmith has a story to tell that illuminates the lives and personalities of his subjects.

He detailed the time he was commissioned to snap Prince Charles for his 50th birthday. Arrowsmith remembers putting on a lot of cologne because he was very nervous, causing Prince Charles to say to him, “That cologne you’re wearing ... isn’t it what old Italian playboys wear?” He said they had a laugh over that.

And the time he took a portrait of a smiling Yoko Ono in London. Arrowsmith said when he first started shooting she was just standing still. To loosen her up, he asked her to sing a song. She started singing The Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four because, she told him, she turned 64 that year.

Or the time he took a photo of Liv Tyler wearing a diamond necklace for DeBeers. Arrowsmith says the company paid her in diamonds for the shoot.

Arrowsmith counts many of his celebrity subjects as his friends. He regularly plays guitar with Richard Gere and Paul McCartney calls him “Spike.”

At the photo shoot in Taipei, it’s clear Arrowsmith is efficient. He doesn’t take long with each subject. Arrowsmith says it’s all about capturing a moment when the picture, the person and the camera all gel together. He says it’s also about trying to put the subject at ease because if a photographer imposes his or her will on someone, “you can see the stress in their face.”

And when asked what difference photographs make, Arrowsmith, a practicing Buddhist, gets passionate. He says he got a friend to sneak some of his photographs of the Dalai Lama into Tibet to distribute to monks and the photos are treasured. “Absolutely photographs make a difference in peoples lives,” he said.

For more information about today’s The 50th Spring: Tibetan Freedom Concert (西藏自由音樂會) in Taipei, visit the Web site www.freetibet.tw.