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THEY'RE BETTER OFF IN GUANTANAMO BAY THAN IN CHINA - said the US authorities when asked to return the 22 captives of Uighur ethnicity held in their interrogation and detention centre. That's just one of the more startling sad facts to emerge from Amnesty International's latest report on China. The full report is at http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng and below are two short excerpts.
''The rights of freedom of expression and association of workers' representatives continued to be severely curtailed and independent trade unions remained illegal. In the context of economic restructuring, large numbers of people were reportedly denied adequate reparations for forcible eviction, land requisition and job layoffs. Public and largely peaceful protests against such practices increased, leading to numerous detentions and other abuses. Beijing was often the focus for such protests due in part to house demolitions during the city's preparations for the Olympics in 2008. People also travelled to Beijing from other parts of the country to petition the central authorities after failing to obtain redress at the local level. Tens of thousands of petitioners were reportedly detained by Beijing police during security operations in advance of official meetings in March and September. Ye Guozhu was detained on suspicion of 'disturbing social order' in August after applying for permission to hold a mass protest against forced evictions in Beijing. He was sentenced to four years in prison in December. Ye Guozhu and his family had been forcibly evicted from their home in Beijing last year to make way for construction reportedly related to the 2008 Olympics.... ....China continued to use 'counter-terrorism' as a means to strengthen its political and economic ties with neighbouring states. Uighurs who had fled to Central Asia, Pakistan, Nepal and other states, including asylum-seekers and refugees, remained at serious risk of forcible return to China. China continued to put pressure on the USA to return 22 Uighurs held in the US detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In June, the US authorities stated that the Uighurs would not be returned to China due to fears that they would be tortured or executed. Abdulghani Memetimin, a 40-year-old teacher and journalist, continued to serve a nine-year prison sentence in Kashgar after being convicted of 'leaking state secrets' in June 2003. He had been charged in connection with sending information to a Uighur-run NGO based in Germany about human rights violations against Uighurs in the XUAR and making translations of official speeches.'' Source: http://www.greens.org.nz and http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng China and Trade |
zurück - retour - back
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