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Chen appoints top watchdog to head shooting investigation

President Chen Shui-bian yesterday appointed a top government watchdog to head a special committee investigating the election-eve shooting.

Fredrick Chien, chief of the Control Yuan, accepted the appointment, insisting that legislation will still be needed for the operation of the independent task force, which in fact lacks a legal status.

Despite the doubts surrounding the committee’s legality, the president promised Chien, a stalwart from the opposition Kuomintang, unlimited help from all government agencies and officials in a transparent and independent probe.

“In order to know the truth, relevant agencies and their officials — regardless of the fact they may be involved in sensitive matters and regardless of their ranks — must fully cooperate,” Chen was cited as saying.

“Even I am no exception,” said Chen, who together with Vice President Annette Lu was injured in the March 19 shooting when they were campaigning in Tainan.

Chen said the committee must issue a comprehensive formal report on its findings and conclusions.

The gunman (police assume there was only one) remains at large, and the motivation remains unknown, prompting the opposition to allege that the assassination could be staged to win the president sympathy votes.

Having rejected over the past three months the opposition’s demand for an independent commission, Chen explained that he had been looking hard for ways to set up a task force within the framework of the Constitution that would not hurt the investigative powers of existing government bodies.

The opposition camp, which lost in the presidential race by a narrow margin, questioned Chen’s sincerity, pointing out contradictions in his directives for the new committee.

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The committee, lacking a legal status, would be doing exactly what the president was warning it against — encroaching the powers of police or prosecutors.

“This committee should be renamed an ‘observational committee,’ because it has no power to investigate nor the power to supervise,” said KMT Legislator Huang Teh-fu.

KMT Secretary General Lin Fong-cheng said Chen must stay out of the establishment of such an investigative committee.

“He should not serve as both a player and referee at the same time,” said Lin.

The opposition is seeking an extraordinary session for the parliament next month to introduce special legislation for such independent investigative committees.

Chien, aware of the lame duck status of his committee, said he would seek authorization from parliament for the probe.

Chien will choose 11 to 13 members for his committee from lawmakers, Control Yuan members, and scholars.

His appointment was made during Chen’s meeting with top government officials to probe the possibility of such an independent committee to clear controversies surrounding the election.

“Since I neither rigged the vote nor faked the shooting, I am not afraid of independent probes into the shooting, just as I did not fear a vote recount,” Chen said.

The unprecedented vote recount was completed in May, pending a verdict from the high court.

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