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UN Human Rights Chief Warns China of 'Deep Concern' on
Final Visit
BEIJING, Aug 19 (AFP) - UN rights chief Mary Robinson
urged China Monday to embrace political reform,
warning Beijing on her final official visit to the
country that its human rights record remained a "deep
concern".
The recent jailing of workers' leaders, increased
repression of ethnic Muslim Uighurs and the heightened
use of the death penalty were highlighted as
particularly worrisome by Robinson, who steps down
from the post next month.
Robinson has criticised China throughout her tenure,
and used the seventh and last official visit to offer
a notably blunt and broad-ranging final assessment of
what needs to be done if rights abuses are to be
tackled.
In her five-year term as UN rights commissioner, the
former Irish president said she had been left with the
impression that China was serious about reforming its
legal system and strengthening the rule of law.
"(But) there is obviously a long way to go, and in the
meantime the actual reality of human rights continues
to be worrying," Robinson said.
She refused to outline whether she thought China's
human rights record had improved or worsened during
her time as commissioner.
While some legal improvements had been made, many
rights violations remained, such as the arbitrary
detention without trial of large numbers of people in
labor camps and executions for even non-violent crimes.
"So, I would say that these overall situation of human
rights still gives cause for deep concern," she said.
Robinson stressed that the growing problems China
faces, especially with economic reforms, made it "all
the more necessary" to embrace political change.
"The greatest need, perhaps, at the moment is
political and social reforms that address some of the
underlying problems that have given rise to labor
unrest, etc," Robinson told reporters in Beijing on
the first full day of a three-day trip.
Instead, she said authorities were clamping down on
freedom of expression and putting further restrictions
on Internet use.
Robinson raised a raft of concerns with Chinese
officials, including the jailing of workers' leaders
following major protests that gripped the country's
industrial northeast earlier this year and repression
of the banned Falungong spiritual group.
She also mentioned restrictions on the use of the
Internet and "Strike Hard", a tough anti-crime
campaign launched last year which rights groups have
condemned as leading to a massive increase in
executions.
"That is causing grave concern and gives rise to more
use of the death penalty and that worries me greatly,"
Robinson said.
Robinson said China's treatment of its ethnic Muslim
Uighurs was "worsening" after September 11, saying the
climate for Uighurs was now "very harsh". Rights
groups have said China is using the global campaign
against terrorism as a tool to suppress even peaceful
dissent among Uighurs.
Among specific cases, Robinson said she had raised the
case of 13-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a Tibetan
boy detained by Beijing for seven years after being
recognized as the Panchen Lama.
He was picked in 1995 by exiled Tibetan leader the
Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second
highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Officials told Robinson the boy was healthy and that
his parents wanted him to have privacy, she said.
"I urged that perhaps his parents could come forward
and at least that there would be some way of verifying
the situation which continues to be a very real
concern," Robinson said.
Robinson is scheduled to meet Cambodia's King Norodom
Sianouk before leaving Beijing Tuesday.
The China visit is the first leg of an Asia tour that
will also take her to Cambodia and East Timor.
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