DPA, P, Suedwest Presse, April 9, 2002
(Deutsche Press Agentur/German Press Agency, Southwest Press)

(Original text in German)

Jiang Zemin not being happily welcomed everywhere in Germany.

Non-Governmental organizations want to address human rights abuses.

Jiang Zemin cannot circumvent confrontation with human rights issues during his scant one-week visit to Germany. This issue is being raised by NGOs. They lament that China uses the fight against terrorism as an excuse to proceed against minorities.

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV -- Gesellschaft fuer bedrohte Voelker) filed a lawsuit against China's Head of State with the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, accusing him of committing bodily harm with intent to kill. Other groups by their actions want to raise awareness of abusive circumstances and maltreatments. Amnesty International appealed to Chancellor Schroeder and President Johannes Rau to openly and publicly criticize China and to cease their policy of "soft-peddling."

Amnesty International pointed to a dramatic rise of cases of severe human rights abuses in 2001. The number of executions had also risen. After a crime-fighting resurgence campaign in April of 2001, within a span of three months at least 1,781 death sentences were handed down and implemented. That number is higher than all the executions in the prior twelve months in the rest of the world. The Falun Gong movement suffers most severely from this repression. 250 followers of this movement demonstrated in Berlin against the persecution of their fellow practitioners in China.