本週文章3
Ma, Wu investigated over bird flu claims
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/03/16/2003527914
Staff Writer, with CNA
An investigation has been launched into the roles of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), former premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and former Council of Agriculture minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) in an alleged cover-up of H5N2 avian flu outbreaks in central and southern Taiwan, prosecutors said yesterday.
Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) spokesperson Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said the action was taken in response to a complaint filed by a group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators who have accused the three of dereliction of duty that led to the bird flu outbreaks.
Chen said the prosecutors would consider if the case should be combined with a related one that is being handled by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office based on a complaintfiled in late December by independent film producer Kevin H.J. Lee (李惠仁).
Lee, who has shot a documentary on bird flu outbreaks at chicken farms in central and southern Taiwan since 2006, has accused Council of Agriculture -officials of covering up outbreaks of the virus.
However, Lee’s allegations did not receive much public attention until the council announced on March 3 Taiwan’s first outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu, which led to 57,500 chickens being culled in Greater Tainan and in Changhua County.
Last week, DPP legislators again raised suspicions over a cover-up by the government, producing a recording of a Feb. 1 meeting in which a voice attributed to Hsu Tien-lai (許天來), former head of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, was heard saying: “Better to wait until the boss steps down,” in reference to whether the authorities should be alerted to the outbreak.
EDITORIAL: No respect for exposing secrets
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