08/28/2002

China will be asked to accept an international team of psychiatrists to tour its mental hospitals to assess claims that political prisoners are being locked up in them and subjected to psychological pressures.

The World Psychiatry Association, meeting in the Japanese city of Yokohama, voted on Monday against proposals to end China's membership of the association, but decided to put the country's mental health system into analysis.

The association's general assembly opted to form a team of psychiatrists and seek Beijing's permission to visit Chinese mental hospitals.

A report published just before the Yokohama meeting alleged that Chinese security authorities were working with psychiatrists to suppress dissidents and convert members of the outlawed Falun Gong in particular.

The report, written by activist Robin Munro, said that up to 15 per cent of people held in Chinese mental institutions may be political prisoners.

The policy adopted towards China has aroused misgivings among some members. Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists, which is pushing for a fully independent investigation, abstained from Monday's vote, unhappy that the association's executive committee would have the power to choose the mission's members.

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