by Xin Yage

The young man of 23 died two days before the end of his military service after a series of abuses by his superiors. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demand the government reform the military, still marked by years of military dictatorship. Mainlanders are "impressed" by the power of civil society.

Taipei (AsiaNews) - Large-scale demonstrations against violence in the military are shaking Taiwanese society. This Sunday, more than 100,000 people met on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei to say goodbye to Hung Chung-chiu (洪 仲 丘), a soldier who died on 4 July from too much punishment received when he was just two days from the end of his national service.

Since his death became public in early July, print and electronic media have kept public attention focused on the soldier's tragic fate, fuelling public debate to the point that nothing appears to have happened in the country since of Chung Hung-chiu's death.

The reason for this heightened interest is the fact that the army has tried to cover up the case, which in turn has brought to the fore other deaths reported in recent years, apparently caused by revenge and unreasonable punishment within the ranks of the army.

Popular protests have found positive echoes in mainland China. "If such a thing happened to us, who would give it importance? No one. Indeed, those who protest would end up in jail. Taiwan and China are ethnically the same but there is one big difference: they have democracy," one user wrote on Weibo, the popular Chinese microblogging site.

Chung Hung-chiu, a 23-year-old conscript, was only two days shy from his scheduled discharge from military service when he was placed in solitary confinement and later subjected to strenuous exercises. Despite his requests, he was denied water, eventually suffering heatstroke and falling into a coma. He eventually died after a night in hospital.

Because of the immense media uproar, President Ma Ying-jeou met with the family twice to apologise on behalf of the government and indicate that a new policy would be applied to new conscripts.

Citizen 1985(公民 1985), the activist group that organised the protest, has taken up the soldier's case, which it summarised in three points. First of all, the Taiwan High Court (台湾 高等法院) should supervise a special joint investigation by military and civilian authorities. Secondly, the military should set up a special commission to re-investigate unexplained deaths in recent years. Finally, the military justice system should be totally replaced by civil courts, with someone responsible for the human rights of soldiers.

In response to such requests, Prime Minister Jiang Yi-Huah (江宜桦) said this week that the government is committed to establishing a special commission to conduct all necessary investigations.

The Commission shall be composed of representatives of the Ministries of Defence and Justice, by people from civil rights groups and lawyers from different backgrounds.

Secondly, the government is committed to immediately revising the rules relating to military court proceedings so that trials in such cases are moved to civilian courts.

Thirdly, the Defence and Justice ministries will continue to investigate Chung Hung-chiu's death to seek redress and fully inform the family.

Fourthly, the Defence Ministry will review all military disciplinary rules to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

Two members of parliament said they would seek a review of other deaths within the military presented to the public as suicides. Because they are personally connected to three families who lost sons during the military service, they were able to confirm that military officers had tried to oppose a "proper investigation"

In all, 18 military are now on trial for Chung Hung-chiu's death. Major General Shen Wei-chih (沉 威 志), commander of the 542nd Brigade, could get up to seven years in prison, whilst Staff Sergeant Chen Yi-hsun (陈毅勋), who was responsible for monitoring the soldier's conditions in confinement, which eventually led to his death, could get life in prison.

Chung Hung-chiu's tragic death is another factor pushing Taiwan towards a fully democratic regime after long years under martial law and a disproportionate presence of the military, an institution that until last month was often beyond reach and above the law.

• taiwan
• soldier’s
• death
• chung
• hung-chiu
• cover-up