The Taiwan government says it will abolish capital...

The Taiwan government says it will abolish capital punishment by 2004, but a recent poll saw 77% of its respondents express opposition. Premier Yu Shyi-kun, adding fuel to a ten-year controversy, announced that the government intends to put an end to the death penalty at the Cabinet's Development and Evaluation Commission meeting on October 14. The Cabinet also issued its first National Human Rights Policy White Paper at the meeting. According to the paper, the government will gradually reduce offences that require the death penalty until they are replaced by a life sentence or long-term imprisonment. The commission also said that it conducted a telephone survey on October 1 and 2 on the death penalty. The 1,109 interviewees were above the age of 20. The 77% of the respondents did not support ending the death penalty while 47% said that the death penalty should be replaced by a life sentence without amnesty. According to the Ministry of Justice, the ministry is planning to abolish death penalty offences and replace them with long-term imprisonment or life sentences before May 2004. The legislature abolished the Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry, or the "Bandit Law," in January 2002. In addition, an amendment to Art.51 of C.C. is pending for the legislature's approval. Under the Bandit Law - a harsh criminal code that was implemented in 1944 in China during wartime - a mandatory death sentence was imposed on anyone who kidnapped another person for ransom and then intentionally killed the victim. Under the law, ten crimes carry a mandatory death sentence. Art. 51 of C.C. stipulates that the maximum sentence for several offences cannot exceed 20 years. The amendment -- which was approved by the Cabinet in July - raised the maximum punishment for several offences to a 40-year. Judicial Reform Foundation Executive-General Shirley Lin said that the foundation advocates abolishing the death penalty, but the government has a long way to go before it can abolish capital punishment. She added that the ministry's policy to abolish the death penalty by prolonging imprisonment is a step in the right direction. However, that the ministry's ineffective prison management is a big concern for the foundation, she said. "Regarding human rights, the abolishment of the death penalty needs to be carried out anyhow," Lin said. "First of all, the number of inmates will definitely increase. Do we have enough prisons? How will the ministry convince the public that its new policy will work after the recent prison breaks? I think the ministry has to address these two questions first." The Ministry of Justice's Department of Corrections Director Huang Cheng-nan told the Taipei Times that the ministry doesn't have any plans to build more prisons even if the number of prisoners increases. But officials are working on a prison management system and hope to come up with a solution which will ensure tighter prison security. (to be continued)