UN envoy condemns torture in China
UNITED NATIONS — Following a fact finding mission to the People’s Republic of China, a UN human rights envoy has decried the Beijing government’s widespread use of torture as well as its woefully lacking legal protections for detainees — many of whom are among China’s ethnic minorities, persecuted religious groups, or political dissidents.
Addressing a Beijing press conference, Manfred Nowak, a Professor of Human Rights at the University of Vienna, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, described a “general culture of fear” among prisoners adding that China’s security police often resorted to torture during interrogations to “produce confessions.”
The two week long visit came after nearly a decade of attempts to gain official access to the People’s Republic—finally the Foreign Ministry in Beijing conceded to allow the trip which brought to the UN team not only to urban centers but highly sensitive Tibet as well as the Xinjiang Muslim regions.
Nowak reports that “over the last several years his predecessors have received a significant number of serious allegations related to torture and other forms of ill-treatment in China. These have included a consistent and systematic pattern of torture related to ethnic minorities, particularly Tibetans and Uighurs, political dissidents, human rights defenders, practitioners of Falun Gong, and members of house-church groups. These allegations have been and continue to be documented by international human rights organizations.”
The methods of torture alleged include: “beatings; use of electric shock batons; cigarette burns; hooding/blindfolding; guard-instructed or permitted beatings by fellow prisoners; use of handcuffs or ankle fetters for extended periods (including in solitary confinement), submersion in pits of water or sewage; exposure to conditions of extreme heat or cold, being forced to maintain uncomfortable positions, such as sitting, squatting, lying down, or standing for long periods of time; deprivation of sleep, food or water; prolonged solitary confinement; denial of medical treatment and medication; hard labor; and suspension from overhead fixtures from handcuffs.”
Although Prof Nowak did not make a specific assessment as to the current scale of these prison abuses, he believes that the use of torture, though on the decline – particularly in urban areas –remains widespread in China.
In a separate case for example, six priests belonging to China’s unofficial Catholic church were recently arrested and two of them were severely beaten. The priests were based in northern Hubei Province, according to the Cardinal Kung Foundation, a rights monitor group based in Connecticut. Wang Jinshan and Gao Lingshen, who are in their 50s, “were beaten savagely, very badly” according to Joseph Kung. Their arrests are part of a campaign to force underground churches to register with the state.
The notorious Re-education through Labor camps, communist China’s Lao Gai gulag system, came in for special scrutiny. A post-mission press statement adds, “The system of RTL in China and similar methods of re-education in prisons and even in pre-trial detention centers go well beyond legitimate rehabilitation measures and aim at breaking the will of detainees and altering their personality. Such measures strike at the very core of the human right to personal integrity, dignity and humanity…RTL constitutes not only a serious violation of the human right to personal liberty, but must also be considered as a systematic form of inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, if not torture. RTL and similar measures of forced re-education in prisons, pre-trial detention centers and psychiatric hospitals should therefore be abolished.”
Prof. Nowak stressed that China must overhaul its legal system to allow for fair trials and above all to “bring criminal law and criminal procedures in line with international standing.” He stressed that China lacks an independent judiciary and needs to abolish the catch-all criminal charge “subverting the public order.” Such coercive tactics are used on common criminals, religious dissenters and political dissidents.
Even in the midst of an officially sanctioned visit Nowak and his team were frequently under surveillance by intelligence personnel. According to a UN report “during the visit a number of victims and family members were intimidated by security personnel, placed under police surveillance, or were physically prevented from meeting with him.” The report adds, “in interviews with detainees, the Special Rapporteur observed a palpable level of fear and self-censorship, which he had not experienced in the course of his previous missions.”
China uses coercive and cruel methods as formal and established State Policy. These findings clearly contrast with allegations of American CIA use of torture on terrorist suspects at secret Eastern European locations. Secretary of State Condi Rice stated unequivocally that the United States “does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any circumstances.” America should not be viewed through this prism of moral relativism.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense
issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com. |
