A Human Rights Blog » China

Retired Accountant and National Model Worker Killed Within Weeks of Abduction for Practicing Falun Gong

admin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:50:02 +0000

Two middle-aged women, from Hunan and Henan provinces, died in late November, within weeks of being abducted by the authorities for practicing Falun Gong, the Falun Dafa Information Center has recently learned.

China urged to release Uighur activist allegedly tortured in prison

admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:15:01 +0000

Monday 20 December 2010

Amnesty International renews its call on the Chinese authorities to release an ethnic Uighur prisoner of conscience jailed on separatism charges after his family reported that he is being tortured in a Xinjiang prison.

Ablikim Abdiriyim, the son of prominent Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, told relatives visiting him last week that he has been held in solitary confinement since 3 November after witnessing an incident that prison authorities wanted to keep quiet. His health has since deteriorated sharply.

The news comes exactly a year after 20 Uighur asylum-seekers were forcibly deported to China from Cambodia. China has not made public the whereabouts of the group, which included two children, since they were seized on 19 December 2009.

“The alleged torture of Ablikim Abdiriyim is the latest example of systematic human rights abuses suffered by China’s Uighur population at the hands of the Chinese authorities,” said Catherine Baber, Asia-Pacific deputy director at Amnesty International.

The Chinese authorities must investigate allegations that Ablikim Abdiriyim has been tortured and make sure he has access to medical help for any injuries he may have suffered.”

Ablikim Abdiriyim was sentenced to nine years in prison for “instigating and engaging in secessionist activities” in April 2007.

Despite Chinese state media claiming his trial was fair, Abdiriyim’s family says he was not given the right to legal representation of his choice and his “confession” was likely to have been made under torture.

Ablikim Abduriyim’s relatives visited him in prison on 13 December and he told them he had been tortured. He said he was also transferred to solitary confinement after refusing to sign a document denying that he had witnessed a controversial incident in the prison.

Ablikim Abdiriyim was detained in June 2006. His mother is Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Uighur businesswoman and activist whose family has been targeted by the authorities since she was detained as a prisoner of conscience in 1999.

This intensified after she was released on medical parole on 17 March 2005 and left China for the USA.

On 27 November 2006, the day after Rebiya Kadeer was elected president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), a court sentenced two of her sons, Alim Abdiriyim and Kahar Abdiriyim, to fines amounting to millions of US dollars, and Alim to seven years’ imprisonment on charges of tax evasion.

The torture of Ablikim Abdiriyim appears to be the latest example of the unacceptable persecution against Rebiya Kadeer’s family,” said Catherine Baber.
Amnesty International has also called on China to account for the whereabouts of 20 Uighur asylum-seekers deported to China from Cambodia a year ago.

Nineteen of the individuals fled to Cambodia from China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the wake of riots in the city of Urumqi of July 2009, fearing persecution by the Chinese authorities.

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, was in the process of reviewing their applications for refugee status when Cambodia succumbed to pressure from the Chinese government to deport the individuals.

The deportations attracted international condemnation as there were fears the group would suffer serious human rights violations on their return.

“We condemn the lack of transparency surrounding the cases of these individuals and urge the Chinese government to tell the world what happened to them,” said Catherine Baber.

Ablikim Abdiriyim is the son of prominent Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer

China: Account for “Disappeared” Uighurs

admin — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 10:05:02 +0000

(New York) – The Chinese government should account for a group of 20 ethnic Uighurs deported from Cambodia one year ago, Human Rights Watch said today. Over the past year, the Chinese government has consistently refused to provide information about the group’s status and well-being.

Human rights activists face persecution in China

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:15:03 +0000

Monday 18 October 2010

Following Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize win, Amnesty International profiles five other prominent Chinese activists who have been locked up for daring to criticise the government.

Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize award has put the international spotlight on his persecution by the Chinese authorities, who sentenced him to 11 years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power” after an unfair trial.

But Liu is just one of many Chinese human rights activists who currently languish in detention in the country. They are prisoners of conscience, jailed solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

The human rights defence movement in China is growing, but those who attempt to report on human rights violations or challenge politically sensitive government policies face serious risk of abuse. The authorities make frequent use of vaguely-worded charges to silence and imprison peaceful activists, such as “endangering state security”, “subversion of state power” and “separatism”.

Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia, became another victim of this crackdown when she was placed under house arrest after she returned home from visiting Liu in prison after he had won the Nobel prize.. Amnesty International profiles five other prominent Chinese activists who have been locked up for daring to criticise the government.

Liu Xianbin, 43
Detained since 28 June in Suining Province, Sichuan
The prominent Sichuan democracy activist has been held on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” since being seized by security officers at his home four months ago. Local human rights activists believe he is being punished for his activism and defence of human rights. Liu was first imprisoned in 1992 for his participation in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. In 1998, he co-founded the Sichuan branch of the China Democracy Party. The following year, he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for “subversion of state power”. After his release in November 2008 he continued to speak out against the Chinese government. He was a prominent supporter, together with Liu Xiaobo, of Charter 08, a proposal for fundamental legal and political reform in China that aims to achieve a democratic system that respects human rights. He has also published articles on human rights and democracy and worked to increase public awareness of other persecuted activists. Liu is currently awaiting trial.

Gao Zhisheng, 46
Currently “missing”
In 2001, Gao Zhisheng was named one of China’s “top 10 lawyers” by the Ministry of Justice. But since his human rights advocacy angered the authorities, he and his family have seen their lives torn apart. After Gao Zhisheng wrote a series of “Open letters for Justice” in late 2005 calling on China’s leaders to stop the persecution of the spiritual group Falun Gong, he lost his lawyer’s licence and he and his family faced constant harrassment by security forces.

In early 2006, he organized a hunger strike to draw attention to human rights abuses and later that year received a suspended three-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion”, with one year deprivation of political rights. The authorities have kept Gao Zhisheng and his family under constant surveillance ever since.

On 13 September 2007, Gao Zhisheng wrote an open letter to the US Congress saying he did not support the country’s staging of the 2008 Olympics. Nine days later, plainclothes police officers came to his home, stripped him naked and beat him unconscious. He was held incommunicado for nearly six weeks and subjected to beatings and repeated electric shocks to his genitals. After he was released his acquaintances described him as “a broken man”.
Gao’s children have been prevented from attending school and his family’s bank accounts have been frozen. His daughter attempted suicide as a result of the pressure and his family were forced to flee China in March. Gao was taken from his home in Shaanxi Province by police on 4 February 2009 and his current whereabouts are unknown.

Tan Zuoren, 56
Serving a five-year prison sentence
An environmental activist who was arrested after he tried to publicize the number of children that died during the Sichuan earthquake and the corruption behind substandard construction that contributed to their deaths. Tan has been repeatedly questioned by the police about his human rights work. He was also harassed by unidentified men who twice stole his computer and also stabbed and injured his dog.

He was arrested in March 2009 after he declared his intention to release an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the quake. Although the initial indictment focused on his work on the earthquake, Tan was ultimately convicted for his commemoration of the crackdown on 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”.

Acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei was prevented from giving evidence at Tan’s trial when he was detained and severely beaten by security officials just before he was due to testify. Amnesty International described the trial as “grossly unfair” and “politically motivated”. In June, Tan’s appeal against his five-year sentence was rejected after a court session lasting just 10 minutes.

Hairat Niyaz
Serving a 15-year prison sentence in an unknown location, held incommunicado
The Uighur journalist and website editor was convicted on charges of “endandering state security” in the wake of riots in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province, in July 2009, for essays he had written prior to the protests and for interviews he gave to Hong Kong journalists. His warning to the Chinese authorities of the threat of ethnic violence in the region the day prior to the protests in Urumqi, which claimed the lives of at least 197 people, went unheeded.

Prior to his imprisonment Hairat Niyaz was an administrator of Uighurbiz, one of the websites accused of promoting the Urumqi unrest. He had also worked as a senior journalist with several leading newspapers in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in north-west China (where the Uighur ethnic group largely reside). He deliberately uses the Chinese language to report on Uighur issues to better reach Chinese-speaking domestic and overseas audiences.
Niyaz was arrested in October 2009 after police said he had “given too many interviews”. In these interviews, he criticised the authorities’ “bilingual” education” policy that he claimed had led to many Uighur teachers being laid off. He argued that the disturbances in the region were caused by 20 years of discriminatory ethnic policies. Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in jail in July. It is not known where he is imprisoned.

Dhondup Wangchen, 36
Serving a six-year sentence in Xining, Qinghai province
The Tibetan filmmaker picked up a video camera for the first time in his life when he began making the documentary Leaving Fear Behind. The film, shot in the wake of the 2008 unrest in Tibet, featured interviews with more than 100 Tibetans about human rights problems in the region.

In March 2008, footage from the film was smuggled out of China and soon afterwards, Dhondup Wangchen was detained. He was tortured and held without charge for over a year before being sentenced in a secret trial to six years imprisonment for “inciting separatism”. Dhondup Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B, for which he is not being treated.

An edited version of Leaving Fear Behind was shown to foreign journalists in Beijing just days before the Olympic Games in August 2008. Chinese security forces interrupted the screening.

Charter 08 (Website)
Leaving Fear Behind (Documentary by Dhondup Wangchen)

Chinese human rights defenders subjected to ‘absurd’ disbarment hearing

admin — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:10:02 +0000

Thursday 22 April 2010

Amnesty International has condemned as ‘absurd’ a legal hearing aiming to revoke the legal licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers who had defended Falun Gong practitioners.

Amnesty International has condemned as ‘absurd’ a legal hearing aiming to revoke the legal licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers who had defended Falun Gong practitioners.

Evidence presented at the Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau hearing against lawyers Liu Wei and Tang Jitian included accusations that they had behaved illegally by making arguments and disputing opinions in Luzhou Court in April 2009.

“The notion that lawyers can be punished for presenting evidence and arguing their case in court is absurd,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director. “The Chinese Ministry of Justice must send a signal that it will protect lawyers from political intimidation and uphold their right and duty to defend their clients appropriately, in line with Chinese law and international legal standards.”

The Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau ended the hearing on Thursday without issuing a decision on revoking the lawyers’ licences, or officially testifying that the lawyers had “violated law”, which is seen as small victory for the legal process.

Liu Wei, one of the lawyers being threatened with having her license revoked, told Amnesty International “it may take a month to get a result. But after the legal debate they may realized that they are the ones who have violated the law, not us.”

“If the result is judged by our defence today and according to the law, we will surely win.”

The two lawyers still stand accused of “disrupting courtroom order and interfering with the regular litigation process” while defending members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Some 500 supporters of the lawyers protested outside the hearing venue, and were met by nearly 200 police officers. Around 20 protesters were detained, most of whom were released by the end of the day.

Government authorities used intimidation to prevent two lawyers scheduled to represent Liu Wei and Tang Jitian from attending the hearing, and other prominent lawyers supporting the pair were put under surveillance or “soft detention” to prevent them attending.

“Escalating harassment of Chinese lawyers is seriously undermining the rule of law, and risks further lowering public trust in the Chinese legal system,” said Sam Zarifi.

Government authorities in China continue to harass and disrupt the work of lawyers taking politically sensitive cases, in particular cases involving Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Uighurs.

In March 2010, Chang Boyang, a lawyer representing Tibetan Film maker, Dhondup Wangcheng, was threatened with the closing of his law firm if he did not drop the case, mirroring the treatment of Dhondup Wangcheng’s previous lawyer Li Dunyong. Dhondup Wangcheng was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for “inciting separatism” for making a documentary, Leaving Fear Behind, which features a series of interviews with Tibetans questioning the Chinese authorities’ promises of greater freedom in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China must release Tibetan filmmaker

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:15:02 +0000

Dhondup Wangchen’s film Leaving Fear Behind

Amnesty International has urged the Chinese authorities to release a Tibetan documentary filmmaker who has been jailed for six years for “subversion”.

Dhondup Wangchen was detained after making the film Leaving Fear Behind, in which Tibetans speak out about their lives.

He was sentenced on 28 December 2009 following a secret trial in Xining city, western China. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.

“All Dhondup Wangchen wanted to do was to give a voice to those who ‘are like stars on a sunny day, we can’t be seen’, according to one of the people he interviewed for the film. This is not a crime,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International Asia Pacific deputy director.

Dhondup Wangchen was detained in March 2008. Police held him at Gongshan Hotel, an unofficial place of detention or “black jail”, for part of his detention period. Police tied him to a chair, beat and punched him in the head and frequently deprived him of food and sleep during interrogations. Dhondup Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B, for which he has not received any medical treatment.

“His treatment and the harsh sentence he was given following an unfair trial shows the Chinese authorities’ complete disregard for international human rights standards,” Roseann Rife said.

He was later moved to Xining City No. 1 Detention Centre. He was held incommunicado until April 2009, when he met his family-appointed, Beijing-based lawyers for the first – and only – time. In July 2009, Beijing judicial authorities forced these lawyers to drop the case.

It is unclear if he subsequently had any legal representation or was allowed to defend himself in the trial.

Dhondup Wangchen’s family has not received information directly from the court about the trial, sentence or verdict. They have visited the detention centre several times but have never been allowed to see him.

Dhondup Wangchen began planning the film in 2006; he explained his motives by saying: “It is very difficult [for Tibetans] to go to Beijing and speak out there. So we decided to show the real feelings of Tibetans inside Tibet through this film.”

In October 2007, he began collecting interviews from over 100 Tibetan people. In the film, they talked about their lives and their views on the Dalai Lama and the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

The footage was smuggled out of the country to Switzerland, where Dhondup Wangchen’s cousin edited it down to a 25-minute documentary. It premiered in a screening to foreign journalists in a Beijing hotel on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Security forces interrupted the screening.

Blog: My life inside a Chinese labor camp

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:04 +0000

People are taking part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights action this week by writing letters and signing petitions to show solidarity with individuals who suffer human right abuses.

Former prisoner of conscience Bu Dongwei spent over two years in a Chinese Re-education through Labour (RTL) camp until his release in July 2008, following campaigning by Amnesty International and its supporters…

By Bu Dongwei
"I was working in Beijing for a US NGO on a project funded by US government funds when I was detained and sent to a ‘Re-education Through Labor (RTL)’ camp due to my belief in Falun Gong.

On May 19, 2006, six to seven police broke into my home and searched for the book ‘Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party’. They didn’t find the book they wanted but found several Falun Gong books. They put me in the detention centre in Haidian District, Beijing.

I was locked in a small cell (about 220 square feet) with 30-35, sometimes over 40 people. I stayed in the detention centre for over three months before I was transferred to the labor camp.

It was to be my second time in this labor camp. In 2000, I was sent to the labor camp for one year the same reason.

Persecution in the labor camp includes; deprivation of basic needs, brain-washing, no freedom to go to the restroom, no freedom to wash clothes, bad food and bad living conditions.

In the Beijing Tuanhe Labor Camp, all Falun Gong practitioners are forced to repeatedly listen to guards insult the Falun Gong, watch videos that slander Falun Gong, forced to denounce Falun Gong and, every day, forced to sing songs that praise the Communist Party.

Force-feeding is a torture method that labor camps often use on Falun Gong practitioners, particularly on those who have staged hunger strikes to protest their unlawful persecution.

One practitioner, Mr. Yu Ming, whom I first met in Tuanhe labor camp in 2001, was in the labor camp for the third time. But this time I never saw him because he staged a hunger strike and was put into a special, small room with a video camera.

One day a guard took me into their office. He forgot to turn off the monitor before I went in. On the monitor, I saw Yu Ming bound on a small bed in the center of the room with four non-Falun Gong detainees sitting around him.

Every day, the doctor would come to force-feed Yu Ming. He had been bound on the bed for over six months before he was transferred to another labor camp in April 2007. .

The guards arranged some non-Falun Gong detainees to live with us and monitor Falun Gong practitioners. The guards promised to reduce the non-Falun Gong detainees’ terms if they ‘worked well’. Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to talk to each other.

Forced labor work
During my first time in the camp, we were forced to pack disposable chopsticks in very unsanitary conditions. Every day we were forced to pack 6,000-7,000 pairs of chopsticks. All the chopsticks were put on the ground of the small room and people often stepped on them. Some of those chopsticks are for export.

In July, 2009, while I was having lunch in a cafeteria in Capitol Hill, Washington DC, I saw that the disposable chopsticks in the cafeteria were made in China. I’m not sure if these chopsticks were made in labor camps… but we made the same chopsticks.

In my second time in the camp, we were forced to pack carton boxes and were exposed to poisonous glues with little protection.

With the help of the US government, the European Parliament, the British and German government, Amnesty International and others, my daughter and I eventually came to the US to join my wife following my release in July 2008.

I sincerely thank all the people who have helped my family and me in the past two years.

Today, millions of Falun Gong practitioners are still being persecuted in mainland China. Many have lost their jobs, their homes and their freedom. Some have even lost their lives just because of the strength of their beliefs.

Even when I was in the labor camp, I could feel from the attitude of the guards that they got pressure from the outside world. One guard even mentioned to me once that international human rights organizations cared about me.

Only after I arrived in the US did I learn that Amnesty members around the world had written me hundreds, if not thousands, of letters. All the letters were impounded by the authorities. But I believe that the pressure from international society, of course including the letters from Amnesty members, helped me a lot.

From my experience, attention and pressure from international society can help to improve the conditions of jailed people. The Letter Writing Marathon is a great idea. Chinese people are now beginning to launch similar programs for those in China’s jails. Please help to stop the persecution of various kinds of people. The injustice must be – and will be – stopped by the joined efforts of all upright and kind people."

Obama must press China to uphold human rights

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:25:05 +0000

President Obama must use his first official visit to China to urge the authorities to reverse the sharp rise in human rights violations in the country, Amnesty International said on Friday.

The organisation reminded President Obama in an open letter that he has a responsibility to publicly push for an improvement in China’s poor human rights record during his scheduled visit to China next week.

Thousands of Chinese activists and human rights lawyers continue to face arbitrary detention, harassment and imprisonment following unfair trials while the authorities continue to execute more people than the rest of the world combined.

“The Chinese government has stepped up efforts to silence any internal criticism or challenge, despite the country’s massive economic growth. President Obama must take this opportunity to show that the US views human rights as a central plank of its relationship with China,” said Sam Zarifi,Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director.

Amnesty International continues to monitor the cases of many individuals who are being held in administrative detention, including the “re-education through labour” detention system, where detainees can be locked up for up to four years without trial.

Torture by law enforcement personnel is endemic, resulting in many prisoners’ deaths while in custody.

Human rights lawyers are harassed, intimidated, assaulted, abducted, forcibly disappeared, placed under surveillance and house arrest and faced criminal charges for protecting the rights of others.

In the first half of 2009 alone, Amnesty International documented the cases of at least four human rights lawyers who were threatened with violence; at least 10 who were prevented from meeting with or representing their clients in courts, and at least five who were briefly detained, one for one month, because of their human rights work.

The announcement this week that authorities had executed eight Uighurs and one Han Chinese for their alleged role in the July riots are further proof of the urgent need for the US administration to push China for an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation of the events surrounding the July riots.

Uighurs and other ethnic minority and religious groups such as Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners continue to be ill treated and face persecution for their beliefs.

“Despite China adopting a human rights action plan after hosting the Olympic Games last year its government needs to show the world that it is serious about meetings its obligations under international human rights law,” said Sam Zarifi.

Amnesty International calls on China to show its commitment to human rights by immediately meeting the following benchmarks:

• Abolition of the “Re-Education through Labour” detention system. There is a strong domestic call in China for the reform of the system. In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, an open letter calling for its abolition solicited 15,000 signatures.

• A public and independent investigation of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators. Human rights defenders and activists face police harassment and surveillance when they press the authorities to take responsibility for the crackdown in 1989.

• A lifting of all restrictions and obstacles to freedom of worship. Thousands are detained for their religious activities.

• Cessation of the repression of Tibetans and Uighurs and respect for their ethnic, cultural and religious identity. Tibetans and Uighurs has been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. These include arbitrary detention, torture, severe restrictions on freedom of religion and employment discrimination.

It also calls on President Obama to urge China to:

• Release Shi Tao, a journalist who was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on charges of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” due to an email he sent to a US-based website. Court records show that one of the evidence was Shi Tao’s account holder information provided to the police by Internet company Yahoo! Inc.

• Release immediately and unconditionally those detained solely for engaging in peaceful protest, including support for the Dalai Lama, the independence of Tibet, or greater autonomy for Tibet.

• Release prisoner of conscience Ablikim Abdiriyim, son of Uighur activist Reibya Kadeer. He is serving a nine-year sentence in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on charges of “instigating and engaging in secessionist activities.”

There are serious concerns that he may have confessed under torture. Ablikim Abdiriyim was detained with his siblings and several family members in May 2006. Their detention prevented them from meeting with a United States Congressional delegation on a scheduled visit. His brother Alim Abdiriyim is also in prison on charges of tax evasion, which may be politically motivated.

• Ensure lawyers’ rights to carry out their legal work without harassment, intimidation, violence or fear of criminal prosecution.

Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Psychiatric Torture in Southeast China

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:35:58 +0000

New York—A 40-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner in Hunan province has died in custody, apparently due to psychiatric torture, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned. The woman had been detained in May 2008 in a local crackdown before the Olympic Torch passed through the province.

Ms. Chen Chunjun (陈楚君), a former accountant at the local railroad company, was arrested on May 10, 2008 in Huaihua city by agents of the 610 Office, an extra-legal task force created in 1999 and charged with wiping out Falun Gong. (6-10 Office) She was walking to a bus stop on her way home when she was detained. Chen was one of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners arbitrarily detained that month in Hunan, as part of a crackdown by local officials ahead of the passage of the Olympic Torch relay through the province from June 1-3, 2008.

Sources inside China recently discovered that Chen died in March 2009 at Huaihua Psychiatric Hospital (a.k.a. Huaihua No. 4 People’s Hospital).

China: Detainees ‘Disappeared’ After Xinjiang Protests

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:40:02 +0000

(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately account for all detainees in its custody and allow independent investigations into the July 2009 protests in Urumqi and their aftermath, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on enforced “disappearances” released today.