CHINA MUST CEASE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTSStop persecution of Human Rights Defenders
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MADPET
condemns the continuing and escalating suppression of religious freedom,
human rights and basic civil liberties in China. On
February 12 2006, the Asia Pacific Relay Hunger Strike for
Anti-Persecution Support Network began a hunger strike in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia in order to support the human rights movement in China and in
protest against the cruel persecution of human rights activists and
oppressed people in China. This hunger strike campaign also seeks to
publicise and gather support
for prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. In a blatant atempt to
silence Mr.Gao, the Chinese authorities have closed down his law office
and are said to have repeatedly threatened him and even placed him under
24 hour police surveillance. Mr.Gao
has been at the forefront of the legal battle on behalf of political and
religious dissidents. His legal firm has been involved in a land dispute
case against locally elected officials in Taishi Village in Guangdong
which is a test case for local democracy, has supported Chen Guangcheng
a lawyer under house arrest in Linyi City because of his involvement in
class action suit aginst local authorities, has defended Zheng Yichun a
journalist and former professor who has sentenced to seven years
imprisonment for his on-line writings and has aided Falun Gong members
who have been brutally tortured and imprisoned by the Chinese
authorities. In one of his letters dated 22 November 2005 to President
Hu Jin Tao and Premier Wen Jiabao, Mr Gau disclosed “…the
true accounts of unbelievable brutality, among the records of the
government’s inhumane torture of its own people, …the lewd yet
routine practice of attacking women’s genitals by 6-10 Office staff
and the police…Almost all who have been persecuted, be they male or
female, were first stripped naked before any torture...” The
Chinese government also continues to persecute many other human rights
activists and lawyers in an attempt to cow them into abandoning their
principled and brave stand against persecution and repression. A case in
point is that of Zheng Enchong, a human rights lawyer who has been
imprisoned for three years on absurd charges and who has allegedly been
beaten in prison in Shanghai. These actions of the Chinese authorities
are in flagrant defiance of international norms and basic standards of
human decency. We
demand that the Government of China guarantees the safety of Gao
Zhisheng and other human rights defenders and lawyers and allows them to
continue their efforts on behalf of the people of China without further
harassment and persecution. We
call for the immediate
release of activists such as Zheng Engchong who have been imprisoned
upon baseless charges. We also ask that the Government of Malaysia request the Chinese Government for an immediate assurance of the safety of Gao Zhisheng.
N. Surendran, Charles Hector & Salbiah Ahmad for
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET) 21st February 2006
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