呂秀蓮的部落格

Why I go on Hunger Strike

Hsiu-lien Lu 

12.28.2014

As former President Chen Shui-bian’s Vice President for 8 years, I’ll go on a hunger strike starting this afternoon for the following six reasons:

 1.     The trial and conviction on the cases Mr. Chen was allegedly involved was actually politically motivated, and violated judicial due process;

2.     The maltreatment Mr. Chen has received in the Taipei prison system violated provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and resulted in chronic illness in his mental and physical health along with other disorders since 2011;

3.     For the past 3 years, Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has refused Mr. Chen’s requests for medical parole and, in so doing, has violated Article 58 of Prison Act, and led to his deteriorating physical and medical health, and put his life in severe risk;

4.     Mr. Chen has been imprisoned for more than 6 years, and is terribly sick; the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of the former President has hurt and embittered many Taiwanese and thus polarizes the Taiwan society;

5.     President Ma often asserts he is clean, but in the past years, he himself and his inner circles, have come under suspicions of corruption and taking bribes, possibly committed crimes of national security;

6.     Mr. Chen and I were running mates in the president elections in 2000 and 2004, and both suffered from gun-shot wounds during an assassination plot in 2004, but we overcame the hardship and were in office for 8 years, making me the only 2-term Vice President in Taiwan. I am grateful to him and wish to fight for his freedom. 

I wish to call on all of our compatriots, regardless of your political orientation, to put aside your love and hate, forget your bitter historical legacy, and come together to build a new and better future that will benefit our people and nation.

May God bless Taiwan!