Fed: China's Olympics crackdown getting worse, says Amnesty

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2008
Fed: China's Olympics crackdown getting worse, says Amnesty

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By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, April 2 AAP - China's crackdown on peaceful activists has deepened in the lead-up
to the Beijing Olympics, according to Amnesty International.

The human rights group has accused Chinese authorities of using "excessive, sometimes
lethal" force to disperse protesters in Tibet, and of imprisoning human rights protesters
in Beijing in a pre-Games "clean-up".

"The crackdown has deepened, not lessened," said Amnesty International's Australian
director Claire Mallinson.

"This is because of, not despite, the Olympics."

Chen Yonglin, a former first secretary in the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney,
said he expected more activists to be placed under house arrest as the crackdown would
probably continue until July, one month before the Games.

The former diplomat, who left his post in 2005 and was granted a permanent protection
visa by Australia, said Chinese authorities were also "clearing out" some 300,000 so-called
"petitioners" from the outskirts of Beijing.

Petitioners are peasants from rural China who travel to the capital seeking legal redress
on a range of issues.

Amnesty's Australian China Campaign Coordinator, Sophie Peer, said there had been "serious
human rights violations" in recent days.

"These actions cast doubt on whether the Chinese authorities are really serious about
improving human rights in the lead-up to the Games," she said.

Amnesty International's final report on China in a three-year project ahead of the
Games calls for an immediate end to the "repressive" measures.

It calls on China to give immediate access to Tibet to UN investigators and other independent
observers, to cease arbitrary detention, intimidation and harassment of activists, and
to allow full and free reporting across China for all journalists.

"With the Games just four months away, the International Olympic Committee and world
leaders should speak out strongly," said Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan.

"A failure to express concern and demand change publicly risks being interpreted as
a tacit endorsement of the human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese authorities
in preparation for the Olympic Games."

"In view of long-documented patterns of torture and other ill-treatment in Tibet, Amnesty
fears Tibetan detainees are likely to face beatings or other abuses.

"Some risk being sentenced to death after unfair trials.

"The organisation calls on the authorities to disclose the names, whereabouts and legal
status of all those detained, and to release anyone detained solely for peaceful protest."

Amnesty said a "near total media blackout" on Tibet was a betrayal of official promises
to ensure media freedom in the run-up to the Olympics.

Its latest report calls for the release of peaceful protesters including land rights
activist Yang Chunlin, who was sentenced to five years in prison for 'inciting subversion'
after he spearheaded a campaign under the banner "We don't want the Olympics, we want
human rights".

Amnesty said he was reportedly tortured by the police in detention, but was denied
the opportunity to raise this allegation in court.

AAP dc/imc/de

KEYWORD: OLY08 AMNESTY NIGHTLEAD

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