By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
An independent third party has been retained to investigate whether a mortar from a military drill hit a whale-watching boat off Yilan County on Friday and an investigation report is to be completed in two weeks, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
The incident came under scrutiny at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which was scheduled to review the ministry’s budget for conscripts’ retirement funds.
The military has verified that all parties that might be affected by the drill had been notified in advance, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), adding that the whale-watching boat’s navigation route was not within the shelling range of the military exercise.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
When Lo asked whether the shelling could have exceeded the range previously announced by the military, Chiu said investigators are working on that angle, adding that they are closely examining samples of scratch marks collected from the boat.
Whether the whale-watching boat was hit by a mortar has yet to be determined, Lo said.
The military’s Dafu Weapon Testing Site in Yilan County, where the drill took place, had issued a public notice 15 days prior to the military exercise and requested the Coast Guard Administration’s assistance in warning vessels operating off the northeast coast not to navigate within the shelling range, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers.
The testing site operates 16 days per month, Lin said, adding the military has no trouble communicating with Coast Guard Administration and Wushi Fishing Harbor in Yilan County.
Lin also told DPP Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉) that investigators found horizontal marks on the boat’s railings.
“For the military drill on Friday, the mortar fired target shells that have gypsum inside, not explosives. If the hull was indeed damaged by shells from the drill, there should be holes caused by objects coming down vertically. However, the hull was slightly worn horizontally,” Lin said.
Since the boat was not operating in the restricted zone, its railings might have been damaged by driftwood, Lin said.
Separately, the ministry issued a statement yesterday morning urging the public not to use inappropriate terms to describe military weaponry, which would only hurt the military’s morale and image.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), who has allegedly leaked confidential information about Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, told supporters at a campaign rally in Nantou County on Sunday that the submarine must be manually operated and would become an “iron coffin” if it sinks.
She said that the cost of building the submarine — NT$50 billion (US$1.55 billion) — could have been used to build 50,000 roads in Nantou.
The ministry said that any unilateral or unsubstantiated claim about the first Taiwan-made submarine would only make unnecessary waves.
“The case involving the submarine project is now being investigated by the judicial system, and the defense ministry will fully cooperate with the investigation. We will proceed with testing and assessment of the submarine as planned to reach our goal,” the ministry said.
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