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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Son was assaulted in navy before ‘suicide,’ mom says
Chen Pi-e, right, the mother of Huang Kuo-chang, a navy conscript who died while serving on board the Nan Yang destroyer in 1995, holds a news conference outside the Navy Command Headquarters compound in Taipei yesterday. On her right is Deputy Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Huang Shu-kuang. Photo: CNA
By Lo Tien-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Chen Pi-e （陳碧娥）, mother of deceased conscript Huang Kuo-chang （黃國章）, yesterday presented an affidavit that she said attested to how her son was assaulted by his shipmates hours before his alleged suicide by drowning 20 years ago.
In a tearful news conference in front of the Navy Command Headquarters compound in Taipei, she said the affidavit from a deserter of the navy’s Nan Yang vessel — the ship on which her son served at the time of his death — testified to an attack on Huang by the ship’s longer-serving sailors, who allegedly struck him in the kitchen and poured boiling soup on his foot.
Chen said she and her lawyer found the affidavit when they were combing through the navy’s archives shortly before the Lunar New Year holiday, and demanded that the navy investigate whether her son was killed by his abusers.
Meeting Chen at the compound’s main gate, Deputy Commander of the Republic of China Navy Vice Admiral Huang Shu-kuang （黃曙光） apologized on behalf of the navy for her son’s death and promised to open an impartial inquiry into the case.
Huang Shu-kuang said that he conveyed to Chen the navy’s “sorrow and remorse” for the pain she suffered as a result of losing her son, and that the navy command “stands with [Huang Kuo-chang’s] family” in launching an investigation into his death.
“There is to be no concealment, no collusion, no acquittal of the guilty or conviction of the innocent. Our position and attitude is to protect [Chen’s] rights and to bring closure,” Huang Shu-kuang said.
He also told Chen that he is to be responsible for all of the navy’s affairs with Chen and she should call him directly.
In 1995, then-navy private second-class Huang Ko-chang, who was serving on the Nan Yang, wrote a letter to his mother asking her to try to “rescue” him from his shipmates.
On July 9, 1995, Huang Kuo-chang was reported missing from the destroyer during a maritime patrol. Six days later, his body was recovered by a Chinese fisherman off the coast of China’s Fujian Province.
Chen said in a media interview in 2013 that she contacted the Nan Yang’s commanding staff, and the vessel’s executive officer confirmed that her son was hazed by senior shipmates, and promised to address the issue.
The navy ruled that Huang Kuo-chang’s death was a suicide, despite Chen’s protests. It was later discovered that an autopsy performed by Chinese authorities revealed signs of suspicious injuries, some of which were consistent with the abuse the deserter’s affidavit described.
In a separate statement, Navy Command Headquarters said it had complied with the Executive Yuan’s 2014 order to organize and hand over all archival material related to the case to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ office, and that the affidavit Chen discovered is a part of those documents, adding that investigations are ongoing.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
