The Washington-based Human Rights Action Center (HRAC) is appealing to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to grant former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) an “independent and unbiased medical evaluation without delay.”
HRAC director Jack Healey issued a statement on Saturday saying: “Don’t play politics with a human life.”
“Provide complete access to independent medical evaluation and care for Chen Shui-bian now,” he wrote.
“There is a cure for [the] human rights malaise in Taiwan and this is the first step,” Healey added.
Two members of the Center — Hans Wahl and Harreld Dinkins — visited Chen at Taoyuan General Hospital on Sept. 17 to assess his condition.
Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year prison sentence for corruption, had been admitted to the hospital after having difficulty urinating.
Healey said that Wahl and Dinkins thought the conditions under which the former president is being held were “grim.”
He said their report on Chen included a “disturbingly long list” of health concerns and that the recent discovery of more than 10 small infarctions in his brain indicated that his medical condition was “grave and worsening.”
Healey said the infarctions may explain the sudden stuttering and halting speech that Chen began exhibiting a few months ago.
“Without access to independently supervised medical care, Chen’s condition has been worsening,” Healey said.
The results of all medical tests so far conducted on Chen should be made available to the former president’s family so that they can decide “where and how to share them.”
“The only conclusion that I can draw is that the current government of Taiwan is attempting to levy a political punishment on Chen that includes a high and increasing likelihood of death,” Healey said.
Wahl and Dinkins had concluded, Healey said, that failure to provide better treatment for Chen could result in his developing a permanent disability.
“What a shameful stain this is becoming on Taiwan,” Healey said.
He added that decades of achievement in human rights protection were now being “overshadowed” by the Ma administration’s failure to act in the Chen case.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we