Irwin Cotler, Canadian M.P. Releases 12-Point Index of Human Rights Violations in China

COMMUNIQU

For Immediate Release:

July 11, 2001

Cotler says "We are witnessing the most persistent and pervasive assault on Human Rights in China since Tienneman Square."

Liberal MP releases 12-point Index of Human Rights violations in China; says awarding of Olympic Games to Beijing would be the rewarding of impunity.

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Categories or Index of Human Rights violations:

1.Prisoners of Conscience with a "Canadian Connection." While we are all pleased at the release of Chinese-Canadian academic KunLun Zhang, it should not be ignored that Professor Zhang should never have been arrested, detained, tortured or imprisoned to begin with.

As well, Chinese authorities have also arrested, detained, tortured and sentenced to a forced labour camp on December 22, 1999, Mr. ShenLi Lin, husband of Jinyu Li, who is herself a Canadian citizen and Montreal-resident, and recently detained (January 25, 2001) several more of her family in China. ShenLi Lin was imprisoned while the processing of his immigration to Canada was underway.

2.The plight of the spiritual, exercise/meditation group, Falun Gong . Again, the release of Professor Zhang should not mask the fact that thousands upon thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained for nothing other than espousing the values of "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance" -- the basic principles of the Falun Gong movement - while their fundamental freedoms of conscience and religion, assembly and association, expression and information, have been systematically violated.

For example, Chinese authorities detained 32 individuals on Tiananmen Square.

On July 4, fourteen Falun Gong practitioners died in a Chinese labour camp. Official statements from the Chinese central government assert that the deaths were suicide, but there is compelling evidence to believe the deaths were attributed to torture.

The Chinese authorities recently passed new rules allowing courts to try followers for subversion, separatism and leaking state secrets if they spread information about Falun Gong.

3. Violations of Freedom of Religion and the rights of religious associations. We are witnessing a systematic and sustained assault on Freedom of Religion in general, and the rights of Christians, Buddhists, Taoists, and Muslims in particular. For example, this has even included, by the Chinese authorities own acknowledgement, the confiscation and destruction of houses of worship in the past year.

4. Systematic suppression of independent political activities , including, the sentencing of ten leaders of the Chinese Democracy Party (CDP) to heavy prison terms, again in the last year alone.

5.The last year has seen an intensification of the repression of the rights of Tibetans , including:

• Restrictions on monasteries and religious rituals;
• Detention of monks and nuns;
• Campaign of vilification of the Dalai Lama;
• Repression of non-governmental workers and non-CCP members for deemed association with the Dalai Lama;

• Vacationing students being warned to stay away from monasteries and temples on pain of expulsion;

• The expunging of the teachings of the Dalai Lama through state-sanctioned atheistic education;
• The blocking of broadcasts by the Oslo-based Voice of Tibet.
• Chinese economic development -- much of which consists of Tibetan minority areas, including the Tibetan autonomous region (Tar) -- has not only marginalized and impoverished Tibetans in economic terms, but undermined further the Tibetan ethnic, cultural, and religious identity and autonomy.

6. Suppression of Freedom of Expression including, in particular, state control of the Internet, and regulations banning web-operators from linking to, or reporting news from, independent news organizations. Indeed, authorities even sentenced Internet café managers, website operators and Internet publishers to prison terms for posting articles critical of [party name omitted] authorities.

7. Chinese authorities also launched an extensive crackdown on the print media, the publishing industry, and the artistic and cultural community . For example, in April 2000, after removing the publisher of two popular newspapers - China Business and Jingping Consumer's Guide - the [party name omitted] re-issued stern warnings that the media must "lead the ideology of the people through news propaganda." In July, editors in about a dozen publishing houses were replaced, demoted, or transferred for flouting the directive. The repression has also included the arrest, detention and sentencing of editors, publishers, distributors, writers and filmmakers.

8. The Government has also been engaged in the systematic control and repression of academics, economists, social scientists and intellectuals , including, their detention, dismissal, and censorship. For example, Dr. Gao Zhan, a U.S. permanent resident and scholar was arrested on February 11, 2001, and was accused of spying for unspecific "overseas intelligence agencies." The Chinese government claims that Dr. Zhan has confessed to the charges, however, no evidence has been provided to support the charge.

Dr. Xu Zerong, a former student of Harvard University and currently affiliated with the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Sciences and Zhonggshan University, was detained last fall and his whereabouts remain unknown.

9. Detainees have been subjected to both physical beatings and brainwashing by "re-education" through forced labour. For example, the witness testimony and documentary evidence is replete with reports of torture -- mental and physical - of thousands of Falun Gong and other religious detainees.

10. Chinese courts continued to impose the death penalty for a wide variety of offenses, a list that grew as authorities stepped up their anti-corruption campaign . In October, China's highest court issued a judicial interpretation calling for more aggressive use of the death penalty against smugglers of arms, counterfeit currency, and endangered species, and against government officials who aided them. Indeed, as Amnesty International has demonstrated China has executed more people in the last three months than the rest of the world in the last three years -- at least 2,960 people have been sentenced to death while 1,781 individuals have already been executed following the government's implementation of the anti-crime campaign, "Strike Hard." The campaign aimed to ensure "social stability" and order was initially designed to curtail violent crime, but has since been expanded to include crimes such as drug offences, bribery, fraud and other non-violent offences.

11. Repression of Rights of Workers as documented by the International Labour Organization in its critique of the Chinese Trade Union Act and its related oppression of the rights of workers.

12. Abuse of the Rule of Law and the breaching of international undertakings, as where the rule of law became the cover for the systematic repression of human rights, including the "criminalisation" of the Falun Gong, the detention of religious adherents, the arrest of Internet operators etc. -- each and all for exercising rights guaranteed under Chinese law and under International Covenants to which China is a signatory.

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For more information, please contact:

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Irwin Cotler, M.P. office [phone], cell [phone]

Tanis Gilbert, EA [phone]