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 The World Uighur Network News 2005

China torture 'still widespread'

Mr Nowak has spent nearly two weeks in China

A UN special envoy has said torture remains widespread in China but appears to be declining in urban areas.  

MManfred Nowak, who has just spent nearly two weeks in China, said some officials had tried to obstruct his fact-finding efforts.

Mr Nowak's visit followed 10 years of repeated requests to be allowed into the country.

Beijing outlawed torture in 1996, but human rights organisations report it is still used to extract confessions.

Mr Nowak, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights' special rapporteur on torture, visited detention centres in the capital Beijing, and the restive western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

In a statement, he said that his movements had been closely monitored.

"Victims and family members were intimidated by security personnel during the visit, placed under surveillance, instructed not to meet with him [Mr Nowak] or physically prevented from meeting with him," the statement said.

Pressure on police

Mr Nowak said the continuing use of torture was due to pressure on police officers to provide evidence in the form of confessions.

He said the methods used included psychological torture designed to alter the personality of a detainee.

He said that until major legal reforms allowed for an independent judiciary, the problem of torture could not be brought under effective control in China.

"There is much that still needs to be done, there is a need for many more structural reforms," he said.

Mr Nowak's visit came at a time when a public debate is going on in the Chinese media about the use of torture and coercion by the police.

In one recent case, a man who had been sent to prison for murdering his wife was released after she was found alive.

The man, She Xianglin, said he had been tortured into confessing to the murder, and had already served 11 years of his sentence.

A BBC correspondent in Beijing says the fact Mr Nowak was allowed to visit Chinese prisons - after a decade of failed attempts - does indicate the country's leaders are willing at the very least to acknowledge the problem.
 

© Uygur.Org  02/01/2004 23:41  A.Karakas