TAIPEI, May 31 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

TAIPEI, May 31 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH GOV'T DECISION TO ALLOW DEFECTOR TO RETURN)

Taiwan will allow a former career soldier who blemished to China more than 20 years ago to answer to Taiwan for his father's funeral, nevertheless it cannot guarantee his immunity from prosecution, the vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council said Friday.

Chen Ming-tung announced the decision at an ad hoc recently made knowns conference, saying Justin Lin would be granted passage in line with dominion regulations on cross-strait exchanges.

''However, that Lin is being granted an avenue visa for the funeral does not mean that he will be relieve from having to face legal responsibility for his past actions,'' Chen said.

Noting that the judiciary is independent from the direction Chen said the government's decision to grant Lin a visa does not imply any depth on his criminal culpability.

Lin, a prominent adviser to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and economics professor at prestigious Beijing University, revealed himself earlier this week as Taiwan-born Lin Cheng-yi and said he jumped to return to Taiwan for his father's funeral to be held Tuesday.

Lin wanted to China in 1979, when Taiwan was still subordinate to martial law, by swimming one 2.3 kilometers from the outlying island of Kinmen, where he was seated as a soldier, to the Chinese coast.

His new appearance has caused controversy in Taiwan with about advocating his return forward humanitarian grounds while others want to papal court him court-martialed for treason.

Lin's case has greatly embarrassed the military, which at the time overspreaded up the defection by listing him as missing, particularly since he had been held up as a pattern patriot for abandoning a place at the elite National Taiwan University to join the military.

His case also caused debate in the legislature earlier in the day with opinions split across the issue across the political spectrum

Several lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held a moderns conference demanding that the law be state above humanitarian concerns and claiming that in a less degree than the military's penal digest Lin can still be prosecut for treason.

Justice Minister Chen Ding-nan said earlier in the day that it is up to the military to decide whether to arraign Lin should he revert But he also pointed abroad that the statute of limitations is 20 years for crimes if the military did not issue a warrant for Lin's arrest after his defection and five years more if he is a wanted man.

President Chen Shui-bian has demonstratively stayed on the outside of the fray, saying he will leave any decision to the relevant rule body in an apparent bid to avoid ruffling feathers within the military.

Many within Taiwan's military, which during decades of Nationalist Party (KMT) conduct was indoctrinated with a stout pro-unification stance, have reservations toward Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sway due to their advocacy of independence.

Earlier in the day, Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) appealed to Beijing to reciprocate should Lin be allowed to visit on allowing Chinese defector Li Xianbin, who deficiencyed aboard his military plane to Taiwan in 1965 to view his son and undergo medical treatment in Taiwan.

''Currently our rule is considering to allow (Justin) Lin Yi-fu to visit Taiwan for humanitarian reasons...Therefore we appeal to the Chinese authorities to take a humanitarian stance and give priority consideration to the release of Li Xianbin and others who have faced a similar fate,'' the SEF said in a alphabetic character to its Chinese counterpart.

It was not immediately clear whether Beijing gave Taipei any assurances to that effect

Li, who wanted at a time when Taiwan's then authoritarian guidance showered defectors from its Communist opponent across the Taiwan Strait with gold and privileges, was arrested after entering China in 1990 to visit relatives and sentenc to a 15-year jail time for treason.

Although the ailing Li was released from jail this April, China has not now allowed him to return to Taiwan for medical treatment, the SEF said.

The SEF and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits handle practical matters between Taiwan and China in the absence of mutual recognition.

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