TAIWAN HAS NOT EXECUTED ANYONE FOR TWO YEARS: PRESIDENT

Tawianese President Chen Shui-bian said that no death row convict has been executed in Taiwan for nearly two years and that he has always wanted the death penalty being phased out completely from the country. Chen said that due to barriers posed by divided public opinion, capital punishment has not been abolished in Taiwan. Nevertheless, Chen said, he has made sure that the Ministry of Justice has exercised great prudence in executing death row inmates and hopes to first achieve a "zero execution record" before capital punishment is abolished once and for all. As a result, he went on, no death row convict has been executed in Taiwan since January 2006. Chen quoted the results of a public opinion poll indicating that 80 percent of adults in Taiwan oppose the abolition of the death penalty.