US dismayed by reported arrest of China protest leader

By AFP - Agence France Presse - via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
May 13, 2009

The United States voiced concern Wednesday over China's reported arrest of a student leader of the 1989 democracy protests.

"We are disturbed by reports that prominent Chinese human rights activist Zhou Yongjun has been charged with fraud after months of detention in China," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

"It is our understanding that contrary to Chinese legal procedure, Mr Zhou's family was not officially informed until May 13," Kelly added.

"The embassy in Beijing has raised our concerns with the ministry of foreign affairs."

"We are calling on the government to ensure that all legal and administrative decisions against him are conducted in a manner that is both transparent and consistent with Chinese law and international human rights norms," Kelly said.

Zhou's family was told of the charges against him Wednesday by police in southwestern China, more than seven months after he was reportedly seized trying to return after years in the United States, his brother Zhou Lin said.

Zhou was a leader of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Union, one of the most visible groups in the protests at Tiananmen Square, which ended on June 4, 1989 in an army crackdown that killed hundreds, possibly thousands.

"They told us the charges concerned fraud. But we are still unclear on the situation. We are waiting for more information," Zhou Lin told AFP by telephone.

Zhou was charged in the family's home city of Suining in Sichuan province.

He said Zhou had a US "green card" denoting permanent residence status there -- a fact likely to make his arrest a touchy issue with Washington.

A spokeswoman at the US embassy in Beijing said earlier it had raised Zhou's case with China's foreign ministry but she had no further comment.

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