|
UN's Robinson Deeply Concerned about China Rights
BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights Mary Robinson said on Monday China needed
to rely on political reform rather than repression to
deal with growing social unrest.
Robinson, on her seventh and final visit to Beijing
after five years as rights chief, said China had made
progress on legal reform but the human rights picture
-- from treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims to
detention of labour activists -- remained worrying.
In a country that arbitrarily jailed people for labour
unrest and imposed death sentences in cases unrelated
to violence, the government needed to loosen political
controls to appease those facing wrenching economic
change, she said.
``At the moment there is heightened labour unrest,''
Robinson told reporters after opening a workshop on
judges and the judicial system.
``It's all the more necessary that China embraces the
kind of political reform and opening up of society
which will also be better for human rights and prepare
China to ratify the covenant on civil and political
rights,'' she said.
China says human rights conditions have improved
dramatically under Communist rule and accuses Western
critics of imposing their values on a country where
people are more concerned about the right to food and
shelter than free speech.
The official China Daily quoted Robinson on Monday as
saying she was satisfied with technical cooperation
initiatives with China aimed at promoting human rights.
But Robinson told reporters on Monday that China was
clamping down on freedom of expression.
Ethnic Uighurs living in China's northwest faced
increased challenges to civil liberties following the
September 11 terror attacks on the United States,
which spurred Beijing to intensify its own battle
against Muslim separatists, she said.
The detention of activists accused of spearheading
labour protests in the northeast this year and
restrictions on Internet use were among concerns
raised in a meeting with vice foreign minister Wang
Guangya earlier on Monday, she said.
Campaigns against crime were of ``very grave concern''
as they encouraged more frequent use of the death
penalty. Unjustified detention of people in mental
institutions and ``re-education through labour'' camps
remained key concerns, she said.
SLEW OF CASES
Robinson said she had also pushed individual cases
with vice minister Wang, who assured her they were
being examined.
They included the cases of Uighur businesswoman Rebiya
Kadeer, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2000 for
mailing newspaper clippings to her U.S.-based husband,
and of a historian named Tohti Tunyaz.
Robinson also asked after Xu Wenli, sentenced to 13
years in jail in 1998 for organising an opposition
political party, as well as a boy designated by the
exiled Dalai Lama as Tibet's second-ranked spiritual
leader, the Panchen Lama.
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was rejected by Beijing and
disappeared along with his parents soon after being
chosen.
Wang said the young boy was healthy and that his
parents insisted on safeguarding his privacy, Robinson
said.
She said the list also included detained labour
activists and one of China's leading private lawyers,
Zhang Jianzhong, who rights groups say was arrested
earlier this year and held incommunicado on charges of
giving false evidence.
TORTURE ENVOY
Robinson also pressed Beijing to set a date for a
visit by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo
van Boven, who replaced British law professor Sir
Nigel Rodley in late 2001.
Rodley had sought to visit China from 1996, but
Beijing refused to grant him access to detention
centres of his choice or private interviews with
inmates.
Robinson said van Boven was awaiting a formal
invitation from China for a three-week trip on which
he could visit any detention centre he wished and
conduct interviews out of official earshot.
``Vice Minister Wang indicated that China was willing
to accept the visit, he even said we could take this
as official confirmation,'' she said.
``But I think it is necessary that the precise
criteria be very clearly ironed out,'' she said,
adding that van Boven wished to visit China sometime
in 2003.
In a meeting with Vice Premier Qian Qichen on Monday
evening, Qian said Robinson would always be welcome in
China despite some differences over human rights.
Robinson, due to leave office on September 11, was
also expected to hold talks in Beijing with Cambodia's
King Norodom Sihanouk before she flies to that country
for talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen on judicial
reform and human trafficking. The king is in China for
medical checks.
After Cambodia, Robinson was to go to East Timor to
attend the first public hearing of the Reception,
Truth and Reconciliation Commission and address the
new country's parliament.
|
