The Executive Yuan Council today approved a draft amendment to Article 44 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces which aims to clarify the definition of abuse of a subordinate by a commanding officer. The amendment will be sent to the Legislature for deliberation.
While the present version of the law forbids a commander from abusing a subordinate, it does not clearly define what constitutes abuse, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) stated. This has presented problems for military training, since certain rigorous classes, exercises, duties and even operations considered necessary for war are now feared to be reckoned as maltreatment by the Criminal Code, and officials are concerned that the unwillingness of cadres to carry out certain exercises or delegate some duties may in the long run seriously affect the fighting capabilities of the armed forces and by extension national security.
Hence, to preserve the normal functioning of the military and safeguard national security, the MND has formulated the aforementioned amendment, the major points of which are as follows:
1. Abuse is inhuman treatment which is not necessary for martial education, training, duties, combat or any other military exigency. (New Paragraph 3)
2. As the nature and duties of each unit of the armed forces differ, the educational subjects, training courses, types of duties and combat operations of each unit differ as well. The MND is thus authorized to enact the scope of and guidelines for the above provision for each unit. (New Paragraph 4)
To draft this amendment, Minister without Portfolio Lin Junq-tzer called together the secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan as well as representatives from the National Security Bureau, MND, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Coast Guard Administration and other related agencies to jointly examine, review and rewrite that part of the law.