Army demotes officer over slur against Japanese-Taiwanese conscript

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Taiwan's Army demoted a company commander late Monday night after he was accused of using a racial slur against a Japanese-Taiwanese conscript serving under his command.

The 6th Army Corps Command said the commander, a captain, was removed from his post in the Yilan-based 153rd Infantry Brigade with immediate effect.

The command said in a statement that further disciplinary action could be taken pending the results of an ongoing internal probe and that the case would also be referred to prosecutors for an investigation into possible public insult charges.

All conscripts should be treated equally, without discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality, the command said, adding that the brigade has sent senior officials to apologize to the conscript and his family.

The statement was issued after the conscript, who was serving his four months of compulsory military service, posted a complaint on social media earlier Monday, accusing his company commander of repeatedly calling him a derogatory ethnic slur in Chinese, similar to "j-p."

The conscript also said he had told the commander several times to stop using the slur but the commander continued to disregard his complaint and even disparaged his mother and his fellow conscripts.