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Military justice must
be consigned to the flames
By Lo Cheng-chung Ă¹©Ó©v
What was the cause of death for army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (¬x¥̣¥C)? According
to the first death certificate issued by the military, it was recorded as
¡§accidental¡¨ in a cover-up attempt. On the second certificate, it was recorded
as the rather ambiguous ¡§other.¡¨
This stood all the way until Hung¡¦s relatives met President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E)
on Sunday. On the same day, a third death certificate was hurriedly issued and
delivered in person to the Presidential Office, on which the cause of death was
recorded as ¡§homicide.¡¨ That this was all done so efficiently was admittedly due
to the fact that the president had ordered it, but more importantly it was
because of the mass vigil for Hung held outside the Presidential Office the
previous night.
If the white T-shirt-clad masses attending the protest had not put such
extraordinary pressure on Ma, it is extremely unlikely that the new death
certificate, the one on which the recorded cause of death most closely
approaches the truth, would have been issued.
The third death certificate not only represents belated justice, it also reveals
the unsavory nature of the military justice system. To be more specific, the
military justice system in this country is the end result of a process of
evolution from military rule to a period of political tutelage to the present
day, with its top-down model of administrative power as opposed to the
guarantees of due process and respect for human rights of judicial power.
Had a commanding officer not given the order, it would have been pure delusion
to expect the military to issue the third death certificate with homicide as the
recorded cause of death. However, as soon as a commanding officer ¡X the
commander-in-chief himself, no less ¡X had given the order, the certificate was
indeed issued, despite the lack of precedence. It was on expedited service, too:
Ask for it to be done in the morning, and have it delivered that same afternoon.
It seems obvious that the so-called military justice system is little more than
a convenient edifice, and that the actual shape of military justice is what
commanding officers deem desirable, or order to be so. The three death
certificates are a prime example.
This military justice, which marches to the beat of the drum of those who wield
power within the system, is measured mainly in the trial shows performed in its
kangaroo courts. In its trials, rules are made on the fly and justice is not
invited into the courtroom. Anyone hoping for exoneration in a military court is
likely to be disappointed.
Citizen 1985, the activist group behind the white T-shirt vigil, made three
demands related to human rights guarantees for people within the armed forces.
The most important of those demands was that military trials be conducted
according to judicial law, not the military¡¦s idea of law.
What the public wants is the immediate implementation of a completely new
system. Members of the armed forces charged with crimes committed during
peacetime should be tried in ordinary courts, not military courts.
What the public most certainly does not want is for the government to fob off
the white T-shirt movement. It should not attempt to dissipate public anger by
coming up with perfunctory, hastily knocked out, spliced together amendment
proposals. The only thing that will help is real change.
This anti-constitutional, unjust military justice system should be, in the wake
of the Hung Chung-chiu affair, swiftly consigned to the flames.
Lo Cheng-chung is on the working committee of the Judicial Reform Foundation
for New Taipei City.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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