Rights Groups Urge EU to Slam China at UN

PARIS, Mar 17, 2000 -- (Reuters) Six leading human rights groups called on the European Union on Thursday to join the United States in denouncing human rights abuses in China at next week's session of the United Nations human rights commission.

"Chinese authorities have been carrying out since December 1998 the most severe repression" since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations, the groups said in a joint statement denouncing heavy prison sentences against dissidents, intellectuals, unionists and Internet surfers.

Accusing Beijing of using threats, blackmail and promises to prevent Europe from raising human rights in China, they urged the EU to co-sponsor a resolution critical of China due to be presented by the United States at the Commission's session due to open on Monday in Geneva.

"Never in the history of the U.N. Commission of Human Rights has any resolution on China been adopted...Yet experience shows that tabling a resolution on China has generally been an efficient tactic to obtain the release of prisoners or advances on legal reforms," they said.

The statement was signed by Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and International Campaign for Tibet.

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