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300,000 people protest Taiwan election
By Wu Gang (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-12 07:54
Nearly 100 people were injured and a dozen arrested after some 300,000 angry
Taiwan demonstrators protesting last month's election results clashed with
police early Sunday morning.
Taiwan riot police
clash with angry supporters of Lien Chan as they tried to storm a
barricade outside Chen Shui-bian's office April 10, 2004. The
violence erupted after more than 200,000 protesters marched in Taipei to
demand an independent inquiry into an election-eve assassination attempt
on Chen, which opposition supporters suspect was staged to win sympathy
votes. [Reuters] | The violence erupted after the protesters tried to storm barbed-wire barriers
protecting Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's office in Taipei.
Protesters demanded an independent inquiry into an election-eve shooting on
Chen, which opposition supporters suspect was part of a conspiracy staged to win
sympathy votes.
In the worst clash since the election, about 2,000 protesters used part of a
large scaffold as a battering ram and tried to charge through iron barriers and
barbed wire.
They threw at least one Molotov cocktail, tables, chairs, placards and
bottles, before authorities using water cannon and about 8,000 helmeted police
wielding wood batons and shields forced them back.
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou said 96 people were injured in the clash, including
55 police. Thirteen protesters were arrested, he said.
The protest was initiated by allies of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the People
First Party (PFP). The two groups have jointly raced against the Democratic
Progressive Party during the election last month.
"To seize power by using unfair and unjust means will never be accepted," KMT
Chairman Lien Chan said. "All the dirty tricks should be clearly exposed to
all."
Again Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James C.Y. Soong urged the leader of the
Taiwan authorities to set up as soon as possible an independent inquiry into the
shooting in which Chen was lightly wounded.
Taiwan riot police
turn water cannons on protesting supporters of Lien Chan as they try to
storm a barricade outside the "presidential office" in Taipei April 10,
2004. [Reuters] | Concluding yesterday that Chen was definitely shot, a top US forensics expert
brought in to probe the mysterious shooting by adding that he was still not sure
if the shooting was faked.
US expert's findings
But he pointed to the rounded heads of the bullets, which reduced their
ability to penetrate, and to the amount and quality of gunpowder used as areas
that needed additional investigation.
"The amount of gunpowder can be adjusted to alter the bullet's destructive
power," Dr Henry Lee, head of a forensics institute in the US state of
Connecticut, said.
Chen says he was gashed across the stomach and "Vice-President" Annette Lu
was wounded in the knee by two bullets fired from a homemade handgun as they
campaigned in an open-top jeep in the southern city of Tainan on March 19.
The Nationalists says the shooting may have been faked or staged to win
sympathy votes. Chen won the poll by a thin margin the day after the attack.
According to late reports by the Taiwan media, the KMT and a civilian accused
the bodyguard of Annette Lu of firing the shot from inside the jeep, said
huaxia.com.
The KMT pointed out that video footage showed the bodyguard raised a black
bag against the windscreen before the shooting. There was a gunshot hole left on
the windscreen.
The bag might have contained a handgun, and the bodyguard could have been
taking aim when raising the bag, the report quoted a woman surnamed Fu as
saying.
The footage also showed a bodyguard holding a white bottle which seemed to be
placing red liquid that looked like paint on Chen's belly after the shooting, to
make it seem he had been shot, the KMT said.
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