The Executive Yuan's Military Injustice Petitions Committee yesterday concluded its year-long mission of reinvestigating possible miscarriages of justice in the military and receiving grievance appeals from victims' family members.
The committee was established on August 29 last year in response to a public outcry triggered by the death of ROC Army Corporal Hung Chung-chiu. According to its charter, the committee was set up to operate for one year (from August 29, 2013 to August 28, 2014), after which the Executive Yuan may extend the operating period depending on the status of the appeals and the committee's progress.
Since the number of petitions has dropped over the months, and the Code of Court Martial Procedures has been amended to transfer all military cases to civilian courts, the committee's transitional missions were considered to have been completed.
Executive Yuan officials pointed out that the committee members held a total of 13 review meetings to reinvestigate incidents occurring within the previous 20 years (the statute of limitations for such cases), involving deaths, disappearances or mental insanity of soldiers while serving in armed forces. A case may be reopened if the soldier's spouse or first- or second-degree blood relative disagrees with the investigation conclusions of the Ministry of National Defense (MND), or the committee may take the initiative to reopen a case based on its own reviews.
The committee members accepted 53 petitions from family members on 35 soldiers, and reopened 80 of its own investigations on 77 soldiers. Among these, 11 cases on four people warranted further investigation and were sent to prosecuting agencies.
When the committee was founded, Premier Jiang Yi-huah appointed then-Minister without Portfolio responsible for legal affairs Luo Ying-shay to be the convener as well as a committee member. Luo later moved on to head the Ministry of Justice and was succeeded by Minister without Portfolio Tsai Yu-ling.
The committee also consisted of 14 other members of diverse backgrounds: three representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the MND, and the Executive Yuan's Legal Affairs Committee; and 11 representatives from the private sector, including social workers, legal consultants, forensic physicians, social leaders and family representatives. Staff members under the committee included prosecutors, investigators and police officers with law enforcement experience, as well as civil servants certified as attorneys or having legal affairs experience.
Minister Tsai said that every petition received was screened by at least two committee members before being forwarded to the committee for full discussion. During the review process, committee members combed through bodies of data from the MND and military hospitals as they attempted to uncover new evidence. They also visited the site of the incidents, interviewed witnesses, and sought forensic help from the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior.
To console the victims' families, the committee offered the services of social workers and psychotherapists from the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Taoyuan Psychiatric Center. Families that filed petitions received emotional support, anger management help, grief counseling, strength building assistance, and an array of other resources and services.
Through its investigations, the committee has analyzed the causes of soldier deaths and disappearances over the past two decades and will forward its recommendations to the MND as reference for making regulatory changes or military reforms. In the future, military cases such as these will be transferred to the civilian justice system.