Taiwan army sends bullying evidence to prosecutors after young lieutenant dies at 206th Brigade base

Taiwan's army said on Monday evening that it has handed prosecutors evidence that a young lieutenant in its 206th Infantry Brigade was verbally berated by a fellow officer before she died after a fall at her base in Guanxi, Hsinchu County. The Sixth Army Corps, which commands the brigade, said it would neither shield anyone nor show leniency, and that anyone found to have broken the law would be held accountable.

The statement, issued at about 20:50 Taipei time (15:50 TRT) on 12 October, came hours after rank-and-file soldiers gave reporters audio recordings that they said showed bullying inside the unit. The lieutenant, surnamed Wang, died after the fall, and the case was already under investigation by the time the recordings surfaced.

What the army says it has found

According to the Sixth Army Corps, the command has obtained the content of conversations between Lieutenant Wang and the people involved, and those exchanges suggest she was rebuked by a colleague in the period before her death. The corps said it had made the conversations a central focus of its own disciplinary inquiry and had sent the material to the judiciary so that the background and the facts can be established.

The corps added that the two people in the recorded exchange did not have a direct superior and subordinate relationship. It said it was nonetheless referring the matter on its own initiative so that investigators, rather than the unit, decide whether the language crossed into misconduct or a criminal offence.

The command, which is responsible for the defence of northern Taiwan and for disaster relief there, also said that building a supportive service environment and stopping officers from scolding subordinates in anger is an important and continuing task for the force.

What the recordings and relatives allege

TVBS, which aired the recordings, reported that a more senior officer told the lieutenant to stop talking nonsense and get on with the job, and accused her of complaining that nobody had taught her while not doing the work herself. NOWnews, citing that report, said Wang had sent messages saying she could not cope with her post as a brigade clerk officer and wanted to return to a company-level unit, and that she spoke by phone with a personnel officer for about eight minutes shortly before the fall.

Relatives have also questioned how the unit handled her psychiatric medication, which was held by her unit counsellor and was supposed to be issued under a doctor's instructions. NOWnews reported that only two doses appear to have been taken, and the family is asking whether that worsened her condition. Soldiers quoted by NOWnews said superiors had known about many of the problems but kept them quiet.

The army had kept a low profile on the allegations before Monday's statement, TVBS reported. The referral now moves the case from an internal inquiry to one in which civilian prosecutors will weigh both the recorded conversations and the unit's care of an officer who had asked to be moved.

Anyone in Taiwan who needs support can call the Lifeline hotline on 1995 or the Teacher Chang line on 1980, the services listed by the Central News Agency alongside its report.