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Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Growing opposition to China’s ‘black jails’
“These black jails are clearly against the law. But local officials call them legal study classes, and that shows how they treat the law as just a tool for abusing rights,” said Zhang Jianping, an activist in Jiangsu Province.
A meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council that started in Geneva on Monday gives groups and governments a chance to press Beijing on secretive executions and jailed dissidents as well as labour camps and other forms of detention.
Yet contention over China’s restrictions on its citizens is not confined to international conference rooms. Activists at home have also been galvanized, most recently against what locals call “black jails” - detention centers holding protesters without official procedures or right to appeal.
“These black jails are clearly against the law. But local officials call them legal study classes, and that shows how they treat the law as just a tool for abusing rights,” said Zhang Jianping, an activist in Jiangsu Province.
Despite the Communist Party’s censorship and crackdowns on dissent, demands for rights are spreading throughout this increasingly diverse and fractious society.
Some rights advocates said the detentions should be a top issue at the UN “universal periodic review” of China.
“In a sense, this is the biggest human rights issue, because it involves so many people, it’s so widespread, and it’s so lacking in legal justification,” said Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing law lecturer and rights advocate who has organized “guerrilla” citizen rescues of detained petitioners.
Zheng Dajing, from Hubei Province, said the detention center he was held in had banners hanging inside its small grounds declaring it a “law education class.” But there were no textbooks or lectures in the disused tobacco-buying station in his home county, Yunxi, that he said became his jail for over a year.
“A banner inside said it was for us to learn about the legal system. But there was no study or law in there,” said Zheng, a 46-year-old former bank clerk whose grievances stemmed from a dispute over home ownership. “The guards spent all day playing mah-jong and cards.”
He was one of many tens of thousands of citizens who every year travel to Beijing to complain at government “petitions and appeals” offices that promise to help settle citizens’ grievances.
But few complaints are resolved, and the petitioners’ rancour and persistence often deepen. Local governments sometimes use the police and hired thugs to lure, cajole or drag petitioners away from government offices.
The aggrieved, many of them farmers, labourers and pensioners, are then held in the unadvertised detention centers, often in Beijing’s southern outskirts and the back roads of other cities and towns. Zheng said he was hauled into one such “black jail” in the capital, driven back to one in his hometown and locked up until late last year.
His claims were echoed by eight other petitioners. They spoke of cramped sometimes violent holding areas, often run by bosses who charge local governments to keep inmates out of sight.
Yan Zhiping, the police chief of Yunxi, denied petitioners were detained in a “law education” center and said they all were treated with civility. But three petitioners from Yunxi, found independently of Zheng, said they were also held in the onetime tobacco station.
“The police told me I was there to learn the law. But they’re the ones who need to learn the law,” said Yuan Rongbao, a middle-aged former soldier from Yunxi who said he was also held in the station for a week last year after going to Beijing to complain about the demolition of his home.
China said in its report to the UN meeting that it strictly limits detentions. A chorus of Chinese lawyers and activists disagrees, and now they are challenging the petitioner jails.
Since last year, Xu, the rights advocate, and an expanding team of volunteers have been descending unannounced on some of Beijing’s dozen or bigger petitioner jails to demand the release of detainees.
In a recent raid, 30 protesters waved copies of China’s laws against unlawful jailing and aimed video cameras at startled guards. Accounts and footage of their protests have spread over the Internet, and along with other critical reports are raising pressure on officials, Xu said.
Teng Biao, a Beijing rights lawyer who has joined the campaign against the petitioner jails, said fighting such abuses needed both domestic and international activism.
“We need external pressure and scrutiny,” he said. “But the real improvements will need domestic breakthroughs, domestic campaigns. Without that, human rights can’t lay down firm roots.”
1 comment:
Growing opposition to China’s ‘black jails’
By Chris Buckley, Reuters
9 February 2009
A meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council that started in Geneva on Monday gives groups and governments a chance to press Beijing on secretive executions and jailed dissidents as well as labour camps and other forms of detention.
Yet contention over China’s restrictions on its citizens is not confined to international conference rooms. Activists at home have also been galvanized, most recently against what locals call “black jails” - detention centers holding protesters without official procedures or right to appeal.
“These black jails are clearly against the law. But local officials call them legal study classes, and that shows how they treat the law as just a tool for abusing rights,” said Zhang Jianping, an activist in Jiangsu Province.
Despite the Communist Party’s censorship and crackdowns on dissent, demands for rights are spreading throughout this increasingly diverse and fractious society.
Some rights advocates said the detentions should be a top issue at the UN “universal periodic review” of China.
“In a sense, this is the biggest human rights issue, because it involves so many people, it’s so widespread, and it’s so lacking in legal justification,” said Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing law lecturer and rights advocate who has organized “guerrilla” citizen rescues of detained petitioners.
Zheng Dajing, from Hubei Province, said the detention center he was held in had banners hanging inside its small grounds declaring it a “law education class.” But there were no textbooks or lectures in the disused tobacco-buying station in his home county, Yunxi, that he said became his jail for over a year.
“A banner inside said it was for us to learn about the legal system. But there was no study or law in there,” said Zheng, a 46-year-old former bank clerk whose grievances stemmed from a dispute over home ownership. “The guards spent all day playing mah-jong and cards.”
He was one of many tens of thousands of citizens who every year travel to Beijing to complain at government “petitions and appeals” offices that promise to help settle citizens’ grievances.
But few complaints are resolved, and the petitioners’ rancour and persistence often deepen. Local governments sometimes use the police and hired thugs to lure, cajole or drag petitioners away from government offices.
The aggrieved, many of them farmers, labourers and pensioners, are then held in the unadvertised detention centers, often in Beijing’s southern outskirts and the back roads of other cities and towns. Zheng said he was hauled into one such “black jail” in the capital, driven back to one in his hometown and locked up until late last year.
His claims were echoed by eight other petitioners. They spoke of cramped sometimes violent holding areas, often run by bosses who charge local governments to keep inmates out of sight.
Yan Zhiping, the police chief of Yunxi, denied petitioners were detained in a “law education” center and said they all were treated with civility. But three petitioners from Yunxi, found independently of Zheng, said they were also held in the onetime tobacco station.
“The police told me I was there to learn the law. But they’re the ones who need to learn the law,” said Yuan Rongbao, a middle-aged former soldier from Yunxi who said he was also held in the station for a week last year after going to Beijing to complain about the demolition of his home.
China said in its report to the UN meeting that it strictly limits detentions. A chorus of Chinese lawyers and activists disagrees, and now they are challenging the petitioner jails.
Since last year, Xu, the rights advocate, and an expanding team of volunteers have been descending unannounced on some of Beijing’s dozen or bigger petitioner jails to demand the release of detainees.
In a recent raid, 30 protesters waved copies of China’s laws against unlawful jailing and aimed video cameras at startled guards. Accounts and footage of their protests have spread over the Internet, and along with other critical reports are raising pressure on officials, Xu said.
Teng Biao, a Beijing rights lawyer who has joined the campaign against the petitioner jails, said fighting such abuses needed both domestic and international activism.
“We need external pressure and scrutiny,” he said. “But the real improvements will need domestic breakthroughs, domestic campaigns. Without that, human rights can’t lay down firm roots.”
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