 DIIR submits report on ‘torture against Tibetan people’ to the UNGeneva: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), through its Tibet Bureau based in Geneva, submitted a report on “ the continuing use of torture against the Tibetan people” to “the United Nations Committee Against Torture on Violations by the People’s Republic of China Against The People of Tibet”, on 29 September.The report details narrative of events from 2000 to 2008, presenting evidence of torture used against Tibetan people under the political and religious repression imposed by the Chinese government in Tibet.
It presents a detailed account of the Chinese government’s violations of the convention against torture by attributing those with ‘evidence of torture in connection with recent protests in Tibet’, ‘torture as a common practice in Tibet even before the March demonstration’, ‘failure of China’s legal system to ban the use of torture’, ‘absence of independent judiciary’ and the ‘Chinese authorities threat of disciplinary action against lawyers’.
The report, which evaluates China’s compliance with the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (torture convention) with respect to Tibet, said, “China continues to engage in widespread and systematic violations of the torture conventions against the Tibetan people.”
China has also failed to make genuine progress in the areas of concern noted by this committee in its ‘1996 and 2000 Concluding Observations’, which is supported by the recent findings of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, following his mission to China, noted the report.
The report asked the committee to examine China’s compliance with the Torture Convention taking into consideration the significant events in Tibet since 2000.
It said significant measures were implemented to curtail and repress the free practice of religion in Tibet, to deny the Tibetan people any meaningful right of free expression, and to marginalize Tibetans through a concerted effort to support the influx of Chinese settlers.
These measures have been enforced through police intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture used to punish and terrorise the Tibetan communities. Indeed, across a broad array of economic, social and political rights, the Chinese government has failed the Tibetan people, the report added.
The report is critical of the increasing repression and economic marginalisation of Tibetans, which culminated in a sustained and widespread series of protests – almost all peaceful – throughout Tibet beginning on 10 March 2008.
Chinese authorities responded by detaining thousands of Tibetans, many of whom were treated with extreme brutality both while being detained and during their detention, shooting and killing unarmed protesters, locking monks and nuns inside their monasteries, imposing a heavy police and military presence in all cities and most towns of any significant size as well as remote nomad encampments, severely restricting travel within Tibet, and instituting “patriotic education” campaigns within the monasteries, the reported noted.
The Central Tibetan Administration urges the United Nations Committee Against Torture to scrutinize China’s compliance with the Torture Convention with particular attention to Tibet.
It also requests the committee to address the continuing use of torture against the Tibetan people and submit recommendations for its consideration in order to end the use of torture in Tibet. |
Shandong House Church Raided, Hymnals and Cross ConfiscatedSHANDONG PROVINCE, CHINA (ANS) – China Aid Association (CAA) reports that on September 20, 2008 at 9:30 a.m., about 20 plainclothes officers raided City Glory Gospel Church in Yantai, Shandong province.
According to CAA, officers forced members of the house church to register their names and leave the meeting site. Authorities also confiscated the property of the Christians, including the collection box, a large cross, Bibles and hymnals. Officials told the church members they had been tipped off about the meeting.
CAA says Pastor Liu and his wife, who were visiting from Taiwan, were speaking on prayer and parent-child relationships to the approximately 60-member congregation when the meeting was raided. Section Chief Sun Jing from Yantai Municipal Bureau of Religion and Director Sun Liping from Zhifu District Bureau of Religion showed their identification. Other officials were present, including the Deputy Director of the Municipal Bureau of Religion and authorities from the Public Security Bureau and Bureau of Security. Four of the officials were holding camcorders and cameras.
Pastor Liu, his wife and one church member were each taken to different rooms for more than two hours of interrogation. Afterwards, police demanded Pastor Liu and his wife no longer have contact with the church, CAA said.
CAA explains that law enforcement officials took the hard disk from one church member’s computer and copied all the content. They also seized the collection box, a large cross, 15 Bibles and 42 hymnals.
Officials later returned the Bibles, but on September 27 the church received a “Notice of Hearing on Administrative Penalty” and “Notice of Administrative Penalty” from the District Bureau of Religion. The Christians were told that the official charge is “setting up a gathering site without approval.” |
 China dissident Zeng says she wants to speak out despite fearChinese dissident Zeng Jinyan said on Friday that she wanted to keep speaking out on human rights but was afraid due to intimidation of her and her jailed husband, who had been tipped for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I think that I will not give up on further efforts," Zeng said in a rare interview after silently sneaking downstairs from her third floor flat in the Bobo Freedom Village in Beijing to speak to an AFP reporter.
"But sometimes I hesitate," she said. "I can't make the decision because I am not completely sure about the risks I am facing.
"Who knows what will happen?"
The 25-year-old has used her Internet blog to challenge China over the detentions and current imprisonment of her husband, Hu Jia.
Hu, 35, had been considered one of the favourites to win the peace prize but the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday instead honoured Finnish peace mediator Martti Ahtisaari.
Talking nervously behind a gate in front of the back entrance of her flat, knowing she was being constantly watched, Zeng talked of her fear of speaking out but also the need to continue the fight for rights in China.
"A lot of people are scared (of speaking out). Even I have to make efforts to get rid of the fear, but if we are not serious about this, the end result will be even more terrifying," she said.
"Especially now that we have children, we have to think of them, of the next generation, as I really don't want my baby to lead the same life as me."
Zeng has been confined to her flat, where she lives with her 11-month-old daughter, under a form of unofficial house arrest.
During the Beijing Olympics in August, Zeng was taken away by authorities for 16 days to the coastal city of Dalian, in an apparent bid to prevent her activism embarrassing China during the Games.
Hu was jailed in April for three-and-a-half years on subversion charges, after he used blogs, emails, and interviews with foreign reporters to highlight various rights abuses in China.
He has campaigned against government abuses, environmental degradation and the plight of China's AIDS sufferers, but the Chinese government insists he is a criminal.
As she glanced constantly from left to right, Zeng said she was nervous about Hu's nomination for the peace prize, and sometimes still agonised over whether to continue the human rights fight.
She said authorities had once told her that if she did something wrong, Hu would suffer the consequences in prison.
"But there are rights that the constitution gave me, meeting journalists is part of the rights in the constitution," she said.
"To talk about human rights is every individual's fundamental right, it is not something that you talk about when authorities let you, and that you do not talk about when authorities do not agree," she said.
Then she glanced to her right, a fearful expression on her face as someone walked towards her.
"They're coming, they're coming, I have to go," she explained, and then ran back into her block of flats. |
 Call for More Doctors to Help End Organ Pillaging by Chinese RegimeKilgour and Matas update Health Conference on China’s ‘Bloody Harvest’
Over the last two years David Matas and David Kilgour have travelled the world seeking support to press China’s communist regime to stop harvesting and selling the organs of prisoners of conscience.
The international human rights lawyer and former cabinet minister toured over 40 countries after releasing their 2006 report confirming the occurrence of large-scale organ seizures from Falun Gong practitioners since the practice was banned by the regime in 1999.
Since 2001, the regime has killed thousands of imprisoned practitioners and sold their organs for large profits, often to “organ tourists” from wealthy countries, said Mr. Kilgour.
In January 2007 Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Matas published Bloody Harvest, an updated report documenting new evidence.
They have won support not only from parliamentarians and government bodies but also from medical communities worldwide. Earlier this month they were in Kingston urging more doctors to help.
Speaking for the second year in a row at Queen’s University’s annual Health and Human Rights Conference, they outlined some notable successes so far.
Doctors’ Support in Canada and Worldwide
The most recent support came from the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), which published an article in the September edition of its clinical journal saying that “All countries should take steps to govern organ donation and transplantation, thereby ensuring patient safety and prohibiting unethical practices.”
That was the consensus of more than 150 representatives of scientific and medical bodies from 78 countries, government officials, social scientists, and ethicists, who met in Istanbul, Turkey from April 30 to May 2 this year.
At the Istanbul Summit, participants finalized a declaration opposing organ trafficking (illicit sale of human organs), transplant commercialism (treatment of organs as commodities), and transplant tourism (when organs given to foreign patients undermine a country’s ability to provide organs for its own population).
Mr. Kilgour also referred to an August 2008 Australian news article noting “useful pressure.” The article reported that Jeremy Chapman, the Australian president of The Transplantation Society (TTS), promised that his members would ask Chinese authorities for an explanation when a non-Chinese person travelled to China to acquire an organ.
The TTS convened the Istanbul Summit along with the International Society of Nephrology.
A July 2008 commentary in The Lancet, U.K.’s medical journal, said the Istanbul Declaration “will reinforce the resolve of governments and international organizations to develop laws and guidelines to bring an end to wrongful practices.”
However, “Still, more is needed from the transplant and medical communities,” it said, including professional societies, journals, drug companies, and funding agencies.
Prior to Istanbul, Israel’s legislature approved a new organ donation law in March 2008 stipulating that brokering sales of organs in Israel or overseas is a criminal offence.
To stop Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese doctors from brokering Taiwanese patients’ organ transplants in China, in October 2007 the Taiwanese government announced it will ban Chinese doctors engaged in this brokering from visiting Taiwan.
And the U.S. National Kidney Foundation issued a statement against transplant tourism in January 2007.
Canadian doctors and parliamentarians have also spoken up.
Last December in the House of Commons, Manitoba MP Steven Fletcher tabled a petition from doctors across Canada urging the federal government to issue travel advisories warning that “organ transplants in China are sourced almost entirely from non-consenting people, whether prisoners sentenced to death or Falun Gong practitioners.”
More recently, Ontario MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj introduced Bill C-500, a ground-breaking piece of legislation that would make it illegal for Canadians to get an organ transplant abroad if the organ was bought or taken from an unwilling victim.
Part of Wrzesnewskyj’s motivation for drafting the bill came from reading the Kilgour-Matas report, which found that Canadians are also among the organ tourists who travel to China for transplants.
Mounting Evidence
“David Matas and I have assembled more than 50 pieces of evidence over the past two years which indicate that our conclusions about ongoing organ-pillaging across China are valid,” said Mr. Kilgour.
In their travels, the pair has continued to receive additional evidence including “new examples of Falun Gong practitioners who in Chinese detention were systematically blood tested while their co-prisoners who were not practitioners were not blood tested,” said Mr. Matas.
Falun Gong practitioner He Lizhi also spoke at the conference. He was jailed for three and a half years in China and spoke of “forced heavy slave labour, electric shocks, [and] frequent deprivation of sleep and use of the toilet” in prison.
Most practitioners withheld their identities to protect relatives and friends from persecution under the regime’s policy of “guilt by association,” Mr. He said. They “were soon sent to unknown places”—officially “relocated.”
What happened to them remained a mystery to him until news about organ harvesting broke.
“They could have been killed by organ harvesting crime—the [greatest] evil ever on this planet,” he said.
The report cites 41,500 unexplained organ transplants from 2000 to 2005—the six-year period since the persecution of Falun Gong began—that do not come from convicted executed prisoners, the brain-dead, or family donors.
While the Chinese regime continues to deny allegations of organ harvesting, peer review has supported the conclusions of the Kilgour-Matas report.
University of Minnesota Associate Director of the Program in Human Rights and Medicine Kirk Allison, British transplant surgeon Tom Treasure, and Yale University thesis student Hao Wang “have all independently from us and each other confirmed the conclusions of the Report and supported its accuracy,” said Mr. Matas.
In 2008, United Nations Special Rapporteurs Manfred Nowak and Asma Jahangir reiterated their previous year’s request that the Chinese regime give a full explanation to respond to the charges of organ harvesting. |
 Chinese dissident wins top EU rights prizeThe European Parliament has decided to award its top human rights prize to Chinese activist Hu Jia who was jailed after testifying to the EU assembly.
Robert Fitzhenry, spokesman for the European People's Party, said Hu had been selected for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the EU assembly's party leaders.
Hu, a campaigner for civil rights, environmental protection and AIDS advocacy, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in China in April.
He was arrested and charged with "inciting subversion of state power" following his testimony on human rights in China via conference call to the European Parliament's Human Rights Subcommittee on November 26 last year.
October 23, 2008 |
Congressional Leaders Issue Letter to Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice Urging Advocacy for ZhangIn response to the recent abuses committed by the Chinese Government against Zhang Mingxuan, the President of the 250,000-member Chinese House Church Alliance, two Congressional leaders have co-written a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The letter urges the Cabinet member to request urgent action from the Chinese Government to free Zhang Mingxuan from his detention and to rectify the personal damages inflicted upon his family.
Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) in July of 2008, had the opportunity to personally meet with Zhang Mingxuan and his wife in Beijing, despite Chinese Government interference.
During the meeting Zhang was able to personally share with the Congressmen the daily struggles and abuses he and fellow Christians face on a daily basis from the Communist Party of China.
The letter also calls upon the American Government and the Bush Administration not to ignore the reprehensible acts of the Chinese Government. The letter encourages the administration to bring International attention to the situation by publicly calling on the Chinese Government to release Zhang Minguxuan and his family members.
Furthermore, the letter directly confronts the Chinese Government of its hypocritical stance on international affairs by stating: “If the 2008 Beijing Olympics have taught us anything, it is that the Chinese government will go to any length to secure their image as a peaceful and harmonious society when the world is watching.”
Through advocating for Zhang and his family the current administration will have the chance to publicly condone the daily human rights violations perpetrated by the corrupt Communist Chinese Regime, and stand in unity with the persecuted citizens in China as both seek opportunities to advance freedom and democracy throughout the World.
The text of the letter from Congressmen Wolf and Smith to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is as follows:
“We write today to express our grave concern regarding the safety of Pastor Zhang Mingxuan and his family.We had the opportunity to meet Pastor Zhang and his wife, Xie Fenglan, during our trip to Beijing in July.
“We recently learned that Pastor Zhang was detained by state security officials in Kunming City, Yunnan province, on October 16and was scheduled to be transferred to the custody of security officials in Nanyang City, Henan province.
“Additionaly, Zhang Jian, Pastor Zhang’s oldest son, was severely beaten while his mother watched when Public Security Bureau (PSB) raided their home in Beijing. Zhang’s younger brother was also beaten by PSB
officials when he rushed to the aid of his injured brother. When Zhang Jian’s mother called the ambulance, the receptionist told her that she had been given orders by government officials not to dispatch any emergency personnel to the Zhang’s home.
“After a prolonged period, a friend of the family was able to drive Zhang Jian to the hospital to receive treatment. He was so badly beaten that the doctors believe he may never regain sight in his right eye. Zhang Jian
recently was told by government officials that despite his condition, if he did not leave Beijing he would be arrested and detained for assaulting the officers who raided his home and beat him unconscious.
“Subsequently, Pastor Zhang’s wife was detained on October 19 by Chinese authorities and her whereabouts are currently unknown.
“The United States cannot continue to implicitly condone the reprehensible and unjust actions of the Chinese government by remaining silent and turning a blind eye. If the 2008 Beijing Olympics have taught us anything, it is that the Chinese government will go to any length to secure their image as a peaceful and harmonious society when the world is watching.
“We urge you to seize this opportunity to once again turn the attention of the world to China by publicly calling on the government to release Pastor Zhang and his family. These are decent good-hearted individuals.
“Do not let the opportunity slip by to stand in solidarity with the Chinese people by advocating for justice for the Zhang family. Should the administration fail to act on this case, it will serve as a symbol of the broken promises President Bush made to promote freedom and democracy throughout the world.
“While addressing the British Parliament on the issue of slavery William Wilberforce stated, ‘Having heard all this you may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know.’
“Please do not look the other way.” |
 China Tortures Tibetan FilmmakerA Tibetan filmmaker from Labrang Tashikyil monastery in Amdo, Tibet, has been released after undergoing months of continuous torture by Chinese interrogators for making a documentary on Chinese repression in Tibet, said a statement by the group Filming for Tibet, which produced the film.
Jigme Gyatso, also known as Golog Jigme, was arrested in March shortly after completion of the film 'Leaving Fear Behind'.
The film features a series of interviews with Tibetans talking about how their culture had been trampled on, their hope on the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and how they viewed the Olympics as having done little to improve their lives.
"It is not clear, according to information from Tibet, if all charges against Jigme Gyatso have been dismissed. He was told by the authorities that he will stay under observance and his probation will last one year," the filmmakers said in a statement seen on Sunday.
"The interrogators beat him continuously and hanged him by his feet from the ceiling for hours and kept him tied for days on the interrogation chair. During the interrogations he fainted several times due to the beatings," the group said.
"After May 12, when the region was shaken by strong earthquakes, beatings stopped and after August 11 there was a noticeable improvement," they said.
Jigme Gyatso was arrested along with filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, whose is still in detention, and there is no news about his pending trial, the group said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government on last Friday announced new regulations giving more freedom to foreign journalists in China, but has not lifted restrictions to do reporting in Tibet.
With the continued restrictions on the opening up of Tibet to independent media, there appears to be no let up in arbitrary detention and harsh prison sentences to Tibetans allegedly convicted for their role in this year’s peaceful demonstrations.
The Chinese government put a violently clampdown when peaceful Tibetan protestors voiced against its wrong policies on 10 March this year.
The Central Tibetan Administration has appealed to the United Nations and the International community to call upon the Chinese government to bring an immediate end to arrests, detention and killing of innocent Tibetans. It also called for the immediate release of all those who have been arrested and imprisoned. |
 China’s Two Major Manchu Internet Forums ClosedChina’s two major Manchu internet forums have been shut down. The server supplier for one forum said it is due to technical problems. As to whether it was shut down for political reasons, the person in charge of the website refused to speculate. He urged the international community to pay attention to the rights and interests of the Manchu people so as to help them establish an autonomous region.
Mr. Lian Bo, the person in charge of “Northeast Manchu Online,” told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that he received notification from the service provider four days ago. It said that the website had data saved in the sever that exceeded the capacity of the database, and said that the website should be temporarily shut down.
Lian said he website has been shut down several times in the past. The longest time was for more than a month.
He declined to comment on whether the shutdown was for in political reasons. But he said that the website had more than 8,000 registered users.
They could express their thoughts freely on the forum and so it would be inevitable for them to talk about political issues.
Lian said, “Because it is a forum, there are all kinds of topics. Though I’ve deleted sensitive topics, there were topics that talked about the party’s policies, such as the establishment of autonomous regions or states.”
Another Manchu forum, “Auspicious Manchu,” was also shut down last week.
The RFA reporter could not contact the person in charge. But Lian said “The Auspicious Manchu was attacked by hackers in the past few days. It has been shut down for more than a week and ours has been shut down for four days. It’s such a coincidence.”
Lian said that there are over ten million Manchu people in China, more than the Tibetan and Hui people. However, the Manchu people don’t have an autonomous region. The so-called Manchu schools don’t teach Manchu at all and the Manchu culture is almost lost.
Now, only the older generations speak Manchu. The Manchu population ranks second in China, after the Han, but they do not have an autonomous state, or even an autonomous region.
Manchu schools are only in name. What the schools teach are the same as other schools and there is not a bit education about the Manchu culture. Some Manchu people have completely forgotten their heritage.
The “Northeast Manchu Online” website was established in 2004. It mainly discussed topics that the Manchu people were concerned about and it was also for helping them know more about their own culture. The “Auspicious Manchu” website was set up in 2003, with members over 10,000. It mainly discussed topics regarding Manchu history and culture.
According to the Chinese government’s census in 2000, there were more than 10 million Manchu people living in China. They mostly live in the three northeastern provinces, and Manchu people consist of over 40 percent of the population in Liaoning Province. |
