Human Rights: February 2009 Archives
By Agence France Presse | Dow Jones Newswire | via NASDAQ.COM
February 24, 2009
China has closed Tibet to foreign tourists ahead of next month's highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, tour agencies and other industry people said Tuesday.
"Authorities asked tour agents to stop organizing foreigners coming to Tibet for tour trips until April 1," an employee at a government-run travel agency in Lhasa, who didn't want to be named for fear of reprisals, said.
A hotel in the Tibetan capital and three travel agencies in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu that normally organize trips into Tibet also confirmed the ban for foreigners during March.
By Edward Wong | THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 22, 2009
On Monday, a 62-year-old woman named Zhong Ruihua who traveled from southern China to Beijing during the Paralympics to conduct a protest is scheduled to go on trial for disturbing the public order, according to one of her daughters.
Ms. Zhong will be the first of 10 people from the industrial city of Liuzhou to come to trial for planned protests in September.
The group came to petition for redress for property seizures or destruction that involved local officials, a common complaint among Chinese. The oldest member was a 79-year-old woman.
They never got to protest; within an hour of being interviewed by The New York Times about their plans, they were detained by scores of plainclothes police officers who had followed them from their home in the Guangxi Autonomous Region. They were then driven back south. The daughter, a woman whose name is Ms. Dang, said no one had been allowed to see Ms. Zhong since she was driven back to her hometown.
Another daughter who had come to Beijing with Ms. Zhong is also being detained, said Ms. Dang, who asked that only her surname be used, citing fear of government reprisal.
"I'm not sure how her health is," Ms. Dang said of her mother. "Of course I'm anxious."
Ms. Zhong's original plan when she flew to Beijing was to apply for a permit to hold a protest. During the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the Chinese government had said anyone could apply to hold a protest in one of three designated parks in Beijing. In the end, no permits were granted, and the government even detained some people who had applied, including two frail grandmothers in their 70s.
Ms. Zhong, who had heard about the earlier detentions, said she became too scared to apply for a permit when she heard that she had to do so in person. So on Sept. 10, she and one of her daughters walked out of an apartment in Beijing where Liuzhou's would-be protesters had been hiding. They were on their way to hold their protest when they were picked up by the police from Guangxi.
The other people in the apartment were also detained when they walked out the same afternoon.
One of the other women, Huang Liuhong, and her 4-month-old son have not been seen since September, when the two were put under arrest in a government hotel in Liuzhou, said one of her sisters.
Two other sisters and Ms. Huang's mother, 79, had also gone for the protest and were arrested in September. The mother has been released, but the other sisters are still in jail.
As Ms. Huang was being driven back to Liuzhou in September, she said by cellphone that the police had stripped her of her clothes so she would not flee.
"I have no idea where they are," the sister said Saturday. "The police won't let me see them."
By DOW JONES Newswires (Agence France Presse)
20 February 2009
Chinese authorities have told a Beijing law firm known for its human rights work that it will be closed, lawyers and activists said Friday.
A Beijing judicial bureau told the Yitong Law Firm on Tuesday that it would be shut down for six months, with a final decision to be made after a court hearing in coming days, said Li Jinsong, the firm's managing lawyer.
"Faced with this arbitrary use of power by administrative departments seeking to illegally pressure us, the Yitong firm could be facing a cold winter," Li said in a statement.
"But we will never give up our fight for a democratic legal system, and the future prospects of justice, fairness and the legal rights of the individual."
According to the notice, the firm would be shut for six months because it allowed a lawyer to practice without a license - but Li said the lawyer was being used as an administrative assistant, which is allowed.
The Haidian district judicial department that reportedly made the order refused to comment on the case.
The law firm has taken up the cases of China's top dissidents, including Hu Jia, who won the European Parliament's top human rights award last year and is now serving a three-and-a-half year jail term for inciting subversion.
The firm also represented Chen Guangcheng, a blind activist jailed in 2006 for four years after campaigning against forced abortions and sterilization by officials upholding China's "one child" population control policy.
The New York-based organization Human Rights In China said the pending shutdown could be linked to Charter '08, a petition late last year calling for greater democracy in China. Several Yitong lawyers reportedly signed the petition.
By Associated Press | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
February 17, 2009
Police raided a private evangelical seminar in central China and detained more than 60 worshippers, with four of them still in custody a week after the roundup, a U.S.-based Christian group said Wednesday.
More than 30 police office broke into the gathering Feb. 11 in Nanyang city in central Henan province, the China Aid Association said in a statement.
China's communist government allows worship only in state-supervised churches, which claim about 11 million members. Christians and clergy in unofficial churches are regularly harassed and detained.
The participants came from four provinces for the event at which two South Korean pastors had been invited to speak, China Aid said.
The Christians were escorted to a hotel in Nanyang by police, where their personal belongings were taken. They were registered, fined and released, the group said. It was not clear how much they had to pay.
Li Dewei, director of the propaganda office of the public security bureau of Nanyang city, said he did not know about the matter.
The two South Korean pastors were expelled from China on Feb. 14 for "engaging in illegal religious activities," the group said. They were also banned from re-entering China for five years.
Two Chinese church leaders were released two days later, but at least four remain in custody, China Aid said.
EDITORIAL - THE NEW YORK TIMES
08 February 2009
In a changing world, one unfortunate constant is the abhorrent ways in which China abuses its people. Huang Qi is a victim of that abuse because he dared to help other victims -- grieving parents whose children were killed last May when hundreds of poorly built schools collapsed during the earthquake in Sichuan Province.
Mr. Huang runs an organization called the Tianwang Human Rights Center in the Sichuan capital, Chengdu. He was arrested in June after posting an article on the center's Web site outlining the demands of five parents whose children died when the Dongqi Middle School crumbled.
By official Chinese figures, as many as 10,000 schoolchildren were killed across Sichuan as school buildings and dormitories shattered. In many cases, other nearby buildings remained standing -- raising questions about corruption in the construction of facilities for society's most vulnerable members.
The parents Mr. Huang was assisting had reasonable demands: an investigation into the school's construction, accountability for those responsible for any failures, and compensation for the children lost. But Chinese officials, eager to crush even the most reasonable questioning of their authority, acted unreasonably.
Mr. Huang has been charged with illegal possession of state secrets -- a legal ruse when officials want to punish a dissident. His trial was expected last week, but his wife said the judge told her it had been delayed indefinitely. The charge is especially difficult to defend against because the official definition of secrets is broad, lawyers, witnesses and family members have limited access to evidence, and the courts lack independence.
Beijing has pledged to strengthen human rights protections. It can prove that by immediately releasing Mr. Huang and addressing the legitimate demands of all of the parents who lost children in the Sichuan quake.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will have many issues to discuss when she visits Beijing this month. China's appalling human rights record and Mr. Huang's unjustified imprisonment must be among them.
By Edward Wong | THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 03, 2009
A human rights advocate who tried to help grieving parents push for an official investigation into a school that collapsed during May's earthquake in Sichuan Province has been charged with illegal possession of state secrets, a legal step Chinese officials take when they intend to punish a dissident.
The advocate, Huang Qi, runs an informal organization called the Tianwang Human Rights Center in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, in southwest China.
Mr. Huang's wife, Zeng Li, said she was told Monday morning of the charge against her husband and that a closed-door trial would be held on Tuesday. She later said that a judge called her at 6 p.m. to say the trial had been postponed indefinitely, possibly because several foreign news organizations had run articles about the charge on their Web sites.
People charged with "illegal possession of state secrets" have little hope of defending themselves in the court system, which operates under Communist Party control. The official definition of secrets is broad and flexible, and can be applied to widely available government documents or even reports published by state-run media. The exact secret involved is rarely revealed.
The charge is used often enough to punish people who have challenged the authorities that some human rights advocates consider allegations of illegally possessing or revealing state secrets the equivalent of a political offense under Mao.
By RADIO FREE ASIA
January 30, 2009
A Tibetan youth detained for his role in a nonviolent protest has been beaten to death by police, Tibetan sources say.
Pema Tsepak, 24, a resident of Punda town in the Dzogang county of Tibet's Chamdo prefecture, had been held in police custody for his role in a demonstration against Chinese rule in Tsawa Dzogang since Jan. 20.
A Tibetan who would not give his name, but said he was from Punda town, said Chinese authorities were trying to cover up the circumstances of Pema Tsepak's death.
"Chinese officials said he jumped off a building, but we believe he was beaten to death and then thrown off the building," the man said.
Tibetans in exile, originally residents of the same area, said that contacts there had informed them of the incident.
Namgyal Tsering, a Tibetan living in Delhi, India, said in an interview that Pema Tsepak had been hospitalized following mistreatment at the hands of his captors.
"He was so severely beaten that his kidneys and intestines were badly damaged. He was initially taken to Dzogang [county] hospital, but they could not treat him, and they took him to Chamdo hospital instead," Tsering said.
Another Tibetan, who did not give his name, said he saw Pema Tsepak in handcuffs as authorities brought him to Dzogang county hospital to treat his injuries.
Nyima Norbu, a Tibetan living in Dharamsala, India, seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said that local officials had confirmed Pema Tsepak's death.
"Chinese police informed Dzogang officials that Pema Tsepak had died in Chamdo and that his body will be cremated there," Nyima Norbu, also a Dzogang native, said.
Ruled a suicide
Jamyang, the brother of a Tibetan official from Punda town where Pema Tsepak lived, said that one family member of each of the three detainees had traveled to Dzogang to visit with them.
They were told upon arrival that the detainees had been moved to Chamdo.
"Only one person could go to visit them in Chamdo. Finally Lobsang Jampa, the elder brother of Pema Tsepak, was taken there. When he reached Chamdo, he was informed that his brother Pema Tsepak had jumped from the top of a building and died," Jamyang said, in an interview from Canada.
Calls seeking comment from police in Chamdo went unanswered.
Jamyang said that while Lobsang Jampa traveled to Chamdo, a convoy of 18 vehicles, including army trucks carrying soldiers and officials, arrived in Punda town and began searching the homes of the detainees.
"They searched the homes of the [detainees] and took away photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When officials reached Pema Tsepak's home, they informed his family members of his death. They said that Pema Tsepak had attacked a police officer with a knife and then jumped from the window of the building and died," Jamyang said.
Protesters rounded up
On Jan. 20, Pema Tsepak, Thinley Ngodrub, 24; and his brother Thargyal, 23, were attacked and detained by police as they walked towards the local police headquarters in Tsawa Dzogang. They were carrying a white banner reading "Independence for Tibet," distributing fliers, and shouting slogans against Chinese rule.
A 19 year-old girl named Dechen Wangmo, found in possession of Pema Tsepak's mobile phone, was also detained.
Namgyal Tsering said that in a separate incident on Jan. 22, three Tibetans, including Thinley Gyatso, 44; Tashi Norbu, 29; and Lobsang Lhamo, 27, were also detained immediately after staging a protest.
"Except for one boy, the rest are all from Punda town," he said.
Nyima Norbu said that Thinley Gyatso, Dechen Wangmo, and Lobsang Lhamo had been released, but that the others were still in custody.
"Tashi Norbu is detained at the Dzogang county jail, while the other two protestors are still detained in Chamdo," he said.
Continuing unrest
Tensions in the Tibetan region are expected to escalate around the one-year anniversary of a crackdown in March 2008 on anti-China demonstrations and the 50th anniversary, also in March, of a failed national rebellion.
China's Sichuan province and other Tibetan-populated areas of China saw repeated protests last year following demonstrations in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which led to violent riots on March 14.
Tibet's government in exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent region-wide crackdown. China has meanwhile reported police as having killed just one "insurgent" and blames Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 21 people.
Original reporting by Dorjee Damdul for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
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