Amnesty International Report 1996 - Taiwan

Two aboriginal activists were imprisoned; both were prisoners of conscience. There were reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees resulting in at least one death. Several military conscripts died, apparently as a result of torture. At least 15 people were sentenced to death. At least 16 people were executed, some after trials which appeared to fall short of international fair trial standards. The ruling Kuomintang party suffered a setback in elections to the Legislative Yuan (parliament) in December, but maintained its majority. The Republic of China, Taiwan, pursued attempts to reduce its international isolation; President Lee Teng-hui visited the Middle East in March and made a nominally private visit to the USA in June. Political contacts with the People's Republic of China remained difficult during most of the year, partly because of President Lee's visit to the USA. In March parliament adopted a law granting compensation to the relatives of victims of killings perpetrated by government troops in 1947, known as the "28 February" killings. The law, and formal apologies by President Lee for the killings, ended decades of refusals by the authorities to acknowledge responsibility for the killings. In July the Council of Grand Justices, a constitutional tribunal, declared that legislation against "hooliganism", which allowed restrictions on detainees' access to lawyers and denied defendants the possibility of cross-examining prosecution witnesses, was unconstitutional. The government indicated that the legislation would be abolished by the end of 1996. In December the Council ruled that prosecutors' powers to order the detention and release of criminal suspects were also unconstitutional, stating that only judges could exercise these powers. New detention procedures were to be developed by the Ministry of Justice, but these had not been made public by the end of the year. Mayau Kumu and Iciang Parod, members of the Amei ethnic group, were imprisoned for one-year terms, in May and November respectively. Both had earlier received suspended prison terms for organizing a demonstration in 1991 in favour of aboriginal people's rights. The suspension of their sentences was revoked by courts in 1995 because of their further involvement in peaceful demonstrations in 1993 and 1994. They were prisoners of conscience. Mayau Kumu was released in December. Nine prison guards and one prisoner were indicted following the death of inmate Chu Jui-jen in September in Chiayi Prison. According to the prosecution, Chu Jui-jen had been held in isolation since July. In September he was hung from an iron gate for several hours and beaten as a punishment for talking back to a senior guard. He was subsequently denied medical attention. The trial had not concluded by the end of the year. In April, five police officers were sentenced by an appeal court to prison terms of between eight and 10 years for beating a detainee to death during interrogation in August 1993. Hung Chien-chung had been detained that month by police in the central city of Taichung on suspicion of rape. At least seven army and navy conscripts died in suspicious circumstances. This reinforced concerns that conscripts faced harsh punishments while undergoing military service and that safeguards against the use of violence by military personnel against conscripts were insufficient. Lan Shih-chung, an army conscript, died in March following several months' hospitalization for wounds sustained in September 1994. He had allegedly been harassed by officers because he had refused to apply for an extension of his period of military service. His family was informed that an investigation into his death was carried out in March, but not of its outcome. In August navy conscript Hsieh Kun-tsang died outside a disciplinary training camp in the southern city of Kaohsiung. Officials initially alleged that he had killed himself while trying to escape from the camp, but in November, 17 camp officers, including its commander, received prison sentences of between four and 11 years in connection with his death. Appeals by the officers against the sentences had not been concluded by the end of the year. In September an army conscript, Yeh Tzu-hsien, was found dead at a construction site in the capital, Taipei. Military prosecutors stated that he had committed suicide by jumping from a building. An autopsy concluded that he had been hit by a vehicle before his death. The outcome of official investigations into Yeh Tzu-hsien's death was not known by the end of the year. At least 15 people were sentenced to death and at least 16 were executed during the year, some after trials which appeared to fall short of international standards for fair trial. Most had been convicted of murder. In February the Supreme Court confirmed death sentences against Su Chien-ho, Liu Ping-lang and Chuang Lin-hsiung on charges of robbing, raping and murdering two people in 1991. The defendants had claimed since 1991 that their convictions were based on forced "confessions". Successive appeals by the defendants and others to President Lee Teng-hui to commute the death sentences remained unanswered at the end of the year. Prisoners under sentence of death continued to be at risk of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Restrictions on the long-term use of shackles were reportedly introduced during the year, but it was unclear to what extent these were followed. In December Amnesty International published a report, Taiwan (Republic of China): Three men face execution after unfair trial, summarizing its concerns on the trial of and death sentences passed on Su Chien-ho and his co-defendants, and wrote to President Lee Teng-hui to urge him to exercise his constitutional powers to commute the sentences. The organization had received no response by the end of the year.