ACTIVE , DECEMBER 2000

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN CENTRAL GROUP NEWS

CO-ORDINATORS DESK:

CHINA: TORTURE AND DEATHS CONTINUE

As I write this, the number of Falun Gong practitioners who have died in custody in China has risen to 68. By the -time you read it, that number may be higher.

Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted from the Hong Kong based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy when reporting the death in early November of Wang Bin, 47, a computer engineer, among others. Wang died after police reportedly beat him for three hours. He is said to have had several bones broken, as well as a punctured artery in his throat.

On October 18 Xie Guiying, a 32 year old woman from Huainan City, is reported to have died after being beaten while resisting arrest. Five days after his arrest for protesting on China's National Day, Liu Yucai, 60, from Jilin province, was dead. The injuries to his neck and ribs suggest that he had been severely beaten. Zou Wenzhi, 54, a chemical plant employee, died on October 16 shortly after his arrest. Rumours were spread that he had committed suicide and his body was cremated, said a Falun Dafa source.

The same source reported the deaths of 50-year-old Dong Yongwei and Wang Youju, a woman aged 64. Wang was detained on July 22 and died of a heart attack nine days later in a detention centre. Zou Songtao, 28, a biology professor at Qingdao Maritime University died in early November in a detention centre in Zobo City. Suicide was said by officials to be the cause of death.

Moves to sue President Jiang

Other reports of deaths of Falun Dafa practitioners received by ACTIVE on November 13 included the story of Gu Jiahong, aged 27, a boiler worker who fell from the sixth floor of Changsha liaison office where he was detained; 61-year-old Pei Ouhua, from Hengyang City, was detained at a drug rehabilitation centre. She died four days after going on hunger strike. Reports by AFP and the human rights centre in Hong Kong say that around 450 members of Falun Dafa have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years, more than 600 have been sent to mental hospitals and 10,000 placed in labour camps. A further 20,000 are-said to be held in temporary detention centres.

Zhao Ming, the postgraduate Trinity student featured in last month's issue of ACTIVE, continues to be detained in Tuanhe labour camp. Falun Gong spokesman Zhang Erping announced recently that the movement would sue Chinese President Jiang Zemin along with the Chinese public security systems for the murder, imprisonment and torture of Falun Gong practitioners.

The newspaper Taiwan Lianhe quoted Zhang as saying that subpoenas would be served and criminal proceedings started as soon as Jiang Zemin or members of the Chinese public security bureau entered the United States.

Tortured to death

One of the people featured in the current campaign against torture, Abdulhelil Abdumijit, a 31-year-old street trader from Gulja City in Xinjiang Uigher Autonomous Region (XUAR), was tortured to death in Chapchal prison on October 17, 2000. Reports say that his body was taken to a cemetery under heavy police guard and buried in a shallow grave. His relatives have been denied access to his grave. Ngawang Sangdrol, a Buddhist nun is one of a number of Tibetans who have made peaceful protests in favour of Tibetan independence. She remains in Drapchi prison. Her sentence has been increased every time she commits minor acts of disobedience or sings pro-independence songs. Born in 1977, she was originally sentenced to three years imprisonment in 1992. In 1999 her sentence was reportedly increased for the third time, on this occasion by four years. The total 21 year sentence is the longest imposed on any woman in Tibet.

Human rights is not a phrase that is popular with the Chinese authorities, but they must eventually realise that the protection of human rights is a priority for the Beijing government, as it is for governments everywhere. China has nothing to lose and much to gain by allowing its citizens the freedom to express their peacefully-held beliefs.

Zhao Ming and the other Falun Gong practitioners who are imprisoned should be released. Torture and ill-treatment of detainees should cease immediately.