A women's rights group yesterday complained that government offices and the media did not handle rape allegations against former New Party lawmaker Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) carefully or properly. Their carelessness caused the victim to be violated twice, the group said.
"Our research shows that the Taipei City Government's Department of Labor and the Department of Social Welfare's Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault should be blamed," said Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻), chairwoman of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights.
Wu said that under the rape-victim protection system, the police, the labor department, local hospitals and the center are supposed to alert each other and update their latest information once a rape victim reports to any one of them. Social workers, police officers, labor officials and medical doctors will then provide help to the victims. However, in this case, the center and the department did not do their jobs as they were supposed to.
According to Wu, the victim, who was only identified as Rose, reported to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) on Jan. 23 that she had been raped by Fung. Accompanied by the office's employees, Rose went to Mackay Memorial Hospital for help and reported to the police. The police alerted the center around 5pm on Jan. 24. The hospital, however, did not do so until Jan. 26.
However, the labor department was not alerted at all until its officials received a fax from the MECO on Jan. 27.
"As a result, it is our understanding that Rose was not helped by any social workers or government officials," Wu said.
The center's director, Tung Fu-chuan (童富泉), immediately responded yesterday afternoon that the center did not alert the labor department because it was Rose's wish they not to do so.
In the meantime, Broadcasting Development Fund CEO Connie Lin (
"What Rose looks like, how Rose sounds and how Rose was raped were all described in detail in newspapers for the past couple of days," Lin said.
"It seems to me that the media have mentally raped Rose again," she said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow