Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of inaction on six death-row inmates’ amnesty appeals and the Ministry of Justice of being hasty in carrying their executions last month.
The Dec. 21 executions became the primary focus of a review of the nation’s implementation of the statutes in the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights yesterday in a special session of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
The six inmates appealed to Ma for amnesty on March 29, 2010, DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said during his interpellation of Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫).
However, Ma has been sitting on the appeals and Tseng signed the execution orders unilaterally without receiving a final presidential directive — a violation of the covenant’s stipulation that all governments avoid execution by all possible means, Tuan said.
“Ma’s inaction is why the ministry even had the opportunity to carry out the executions and commit the violation,” Tuan said.
Political scientist Mab Huang (黃默), a member of the Presidential Office’s Human Rights Consultative Committee, said at the session that the executions “would be interpreted by most experts as a violation of the covenant.”
In response, Tseng said his signing of the execution orders was in accordance with the law, adding that “if the president agreed to grant amnesty, he would have informed the ministry immediately after making the decision.”
On the issue of abolishing of death penalty, Tseng said that while abolition was a “long-term goal” of the government, the ministry never said that the banning of capital punishment was a “set policy.”
The minister said that the nine members on the ministry’s Task Force for Research and Promotion on Abolition of the Death Penalty — who tendered their resignations after the executions — have agreed to stay on the panel.
A delegation of 10 international experts is scheduled to visit Taiwan and review the nation’s implementation of the covenants from Feb. 25 to March 1, Tseng said.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) for comments reportedly made by a ministry official that observations about the executions made by two experts who would be in the delegation were an “interference in domestic affairs.”
“There has not been any democracy that I know of that would have labeled comments related to human rights as an ‘interference in domestic affairs.’ Perhaps China and North Korea,” Hsiao said.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Ko (柯森耀) also said he had never heard any democratic country make similar comments.
Other concerns raised by lawmakers included efforts to amend laws to adhere to the two covenants, as well as the failure to address the rights of Aborigines and foreign spouses as stipulated in the pacts.
Though the government pledged to amend laws to adhere to the covenants within two years, 72 of the 263 laws have not been amended almost three years after the covenants’ ratification, Hsiao said.
MOFA has often cited national security issues to deny foreign spouses entry to Taiwan, she added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sra Kacaw (鄭天財), who represents Aboriginal constituencies, said the government has not addressed Aborigines’ rights to self-determination, property or natural resources.
Meanwhile, Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡), the executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, accused Tseng of lying when he told the legislature that the Ministry of Justice had talked to the nine anti-death-penalty activists who resigned from the task force and reached an “understanding” with them on executions.
“Tseng lied when he said that the ministry spoke to the nine of us in private and reached an ‘understanding,’ and that we expressed our agreement with the ministry’s ideas on executions,” Lin said yesterday. “Aside from issuing a public statement on our withdrawal from the task force, the ministry never spoke to us in private and we have neither an understanding nor agreement with it on the death penalty.”
In related news, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted Tseng Wen-chin (曾文欽), suspected of slitting the throat of a 10-year-old boy on Dec. 1, and recommended capital punishment.
Additional reporting by CNA
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
RSS