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Ex-Taiwan president quizzed over French arms scandal
Taipei (AFP) Jul 25, 2006 Prosecutors have questioned former president Lee Teng-hui over Taiwan's worst military scandal allegedly involving millions of dollars in kickbacks over the 1991 purchase of French warships, it was reported Tuesday. Lee, who headed the then Kuomintang (KMT) government, was interrogated for two hours Monday in the offices of a think-tank he founded, the state-funded Central News Agency (CNA) said. Lee reportedly told the prosecutors that he did not know why Taiwan's navy dropped a proposal to buy six frigates from South Korea and turned to France to supply six warships at an inflated price. Lee said he did not have the final say on arms purchases, CNA said. Taiwan in 1991 struck an agreement with France to buy six Lafayette-class frigates, built by Thomson-CSF, for 2.8 billion US dollars in a deal that strained French ties with China. Millions of dollars in illicit payments were believed have gone to government officials and military personnel in France, Taiwan and China. Hau Pei-tsun, a former premier who was chief of the general staff from 1981-89, also denied a role in a questioning last week. Hau visited France in May 1989 but he insisted he simply gave advice and the navy made the final decision. "It (the purchase) was the result of the navy's professional evaluation," Hau told reporters following the questioning. Prosecutors last week also questioned another former premier Vincent Siew, who was the economics minister when Taipei and Paris were negotiating the arms deal in the late 1980s. Allegations of kickbacks emerged after the body of Taiwanese naval captain Yin Ching-feng, who ran the arms acquisition office, was found floating in the sea in 1993. It has been suspected that Yin was murdered because he was ready to blow the whistle on rampant corruption in the military -- including the Lafayette deal. A French judicial probe opened in 2001 into claims that much of the money Taiwan paid for the frigates had gone on commissions to middlemen, politicians and military officers in Taiwan, China and France. An investigation the same year by Taiwan's highest anti-graft body concluded that Thomson-CSF should repay 26.75 million US dollars which, it said, was spent on kickbacks. Taiwan's watchdog body, the Control Yuan, suggested as much as 400 million US dollars in kickbacks may have been paid. So far 13 military officers and 15 arms brokers have been jailed in Taiwan on charges of bribery and leaking military secrets. No one has been charged over Yin's death. The latest Taiwanese legal action came after the authorities received key evidence from the Swiss government implicating Taiwanese arms broker Andrew Wang, a key suspect in the scandal. In 2004, Switzerland's highest court overruled Wang's bid to keep secret bank documents there. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Nuclear Space Technology at Space-Travel.com
UN official accuses Israel of excessive force in Gaza
Nusseirat, Gaza Strip (AFP) Jul 25, 2006 UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland on Tuesday blasted Israel's air strike last month on the sole power plant in the impoverished Gaza Strip as a "clear" example of disproportionate use of force. |
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