 |
 |
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 |
HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES TO PROTEST CHINA’S POLICY OF REPATRIATING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES
By John M. Lindner
Special to ASSIST News Service
WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) -- Human rights advocates are planning a worldwide protest this Wednesday, December 22, against China’s policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
The protests are scheduled to be held at Chinese embassies and consulates in major cities worldwide, including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Toronto, Houston, London, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Seoul and Pusan. The campaign is being planned by South Korea based International Campaign to Block the Repatriation of the NK Refugees.
Mrs. Suzanne Scholte of the North Korea Freedom Coalition will lead the 11 a.m. protest in Washington, D.C. at the Chinese embassy, 2000 Connecticut Ave., N.W. A crowd of about 100 persons is expected to join in the D.C. protest, representing a score of U.S. human rights agencies, including the Wilberforce Forum and the Defense Forum Foundation.
Hannah Song of Liberation in North Korea (LiNK) will lead a protest at China’s Mission to the U.N. in New York. LiNK was started by a Yale student in March 2004 and has rapidly grown to 70 chapters across the U.S., with additional chapters in Europe and South Korea.
The protest movement carries the endorsement of U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Congressmen Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and Christopher Cox (R-CA). President George W. Bush signed into law the North Korean Human Rights Act (H.R. 4011) on October 18, which defends human rights of N.K. refugees, sets stricter guidelines providing humanitarian help for those suffering in N.K., and provides for NK refugees to seek asylum in the U.S.
According to U.S. News and World Report, more than 400,000 persons are believed to have perished in North Korean prison camps the last 30 years. At least 200,000 are currently being detained and brutalized in government-run gulags. Two of the camps are larger in area than the District of Columbia, and a third is three times the size of D.C.[1]
The regime of North Korea President, Kim Jong Il, is also responsible for the 4 million North Koreans who have died of starvation since 1995, using international food aid to stockpile the nation’s military complexes instead of feeding its people.[2]
South Korean human rights groups estimate that more than 200,000 North Koreans are living in hiding in China, waiting for a chance to defect to South Korea. There they are welcomed by ethnic Korean Christians and Chinese nationals, but if caught by China’s military police, are forcefully repatriated back to North Korea, where they face inevitable punishment, imprisonment and even death.
According to North Korean law, defection is punishable by death, and just attempting to defect is considered treason.
Nearly 6,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, including 1,139 in 2002, 1,281 in 2003 and about 1,500 so far this year.
China’s policy of repatriating NK refugees violates the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees, of which China is a signatory.
At the protest in D.C., Scholte plans to read aloud the list of North Korean defectors seized by Chinese authorities.
“Reading the list is important,” Scholte told ASSIST News Service in an email.
“Having been involved in a number of protests, I did wonder whether reading this list was having an impact since the Chinese usually blocked us from delivering the list and petitions to their embassies at past protests. Earlier this year in March during the International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees sponsored by the Citizens Alliance and held in Warsaw, Poland, we read this list once again in front of the Chinese embassy. In August, 6 months later, I got this email from Human Rights activist Sang Hun Kim:
“I have very encouraging news for you, Suzanne! As you must have been informed, Mr. Kim Hee-tae was found ‘not guilty’ by the Chinese court and he is now with me in Seoul. One of the first things he told me was that sometime last March, he managed to keep a radio at night in the prison...and, one night, heard your voice calling his name in front of the Chinese Embassy in Poland through Radio Free Asia. Isn't it amazing! He was so encouraged and filled with new strength to fight at that time.”[3]
“China cannot avoid international scrutiny for her treatment of North Koreans and their human rights defenders,” says a LiNK press release. “On December 22, 2004, we ask that those of conscience voice their outrage at this grave and tragic injustice.”
Participating agencies based in South Korea include the NK Network for NK Democracy and Human Rights, the Pnan Organization, the NK Defectors Association, the International Coalition for NK Human Rights, the Commission to Help NK Refugees, the NK Defector Businessmen’s Association, the Save Choi Young-Yun, and the Durihana Missionary organizations. [4]
The Save Choi Young-Hun group was founded out of concern for Mr. Choi Young Yunj, a South Korean human rights activist who was part of the failed boat people rescue, was arrested by the Chinese, and has been in prison for two years, according to coalition spokesperson, Eileen Choi.
A complete list of NK detainees can be found at www.nkzone.org and scroll down for “the List.”
A complete list of participating organizations can be found at www.nkrefugee.org/ and click on “campaign plan.”
______________________________________________________________________
. 11:48:40 AM 
|
|
Chinese President Praises Macau, Criticizes Hong Kong [VOA]
Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed the success of the "one-country, two systems" policy in Macau Monday, as he led 5th anniversary celebrations of the former Portuguese enclave's return to China. But the Chinese leader expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership of Hong Kong.
On his first visit to Macau as China's president, Hu Jintao praised the territory's record in the five years since its return to Chinese sovereignty.
The territory, administered by Portugal for more than 400 years, is enjoying an unprecedented economic boom, fueled by foreign investments in its recently liberalized gambling industry.
Mr. Hu says time has proven that the "one country, two systems" formula is, in his words, "entirely correct".
China's late leader, Deng Xiaoping, crafted the concept of "one country, two systems" to deal with the then impending return of Macau and the British colony of Hong Kong in the late 1990s. The policy provided for a high degree of political autonomy for the two territories and preserved their capitalist systems, despite China's communist system.
The model was also meant to entice Taiwan, which has been self-governed since 1949, to return to Beijing's rule.
But while Macau has experienced stability and growth, Hong Kong has been beset by economic and political troubles since Britain handed it back to China in 1997. The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome last year and demands for greater democracy have been among the many challenges the local administration has faced.
Beijing has refused to allow universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2007 and 2008, when the next elections for the territory's legislature and chief executive are scheduled - prompting mass protests earlier this year.
On Sunday, Hong Kong's government suffered another embarrassment, when a court challenge forced it to scrap a $3 billion privatization of the commercial assets of its public housing estates.
At the Macau celebrations Monday, President Hu publicly berated Hong Kong's leaders, including Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, who stood by looking uncomfortable as Mr. Hu spoke.
Mr. Hu told officials to reflect on what Hong Kong has gone through since returning to China, examine its shortcomings, and improve its capabilities.
President Hu has not visited Hong Kong since becoming China's president and Communist party leader last year.
. 11:46:52 AM
|
|
TORTURED FOR THE LORD
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
CHINA (ANS) -- While Americans gear up to celebrate Christmas and enjoy God’s blessings, numerous Christians in China are carrying their cross for Lord. In His Name they are tortured, jailed, detained, tortured, fined or separated from their families.
The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China’s (CIPRC) Chief Secretary John Lee sent this compelling and yet tragic story of the torture that four Christian evangelists suffered because of preaching the gospel.
Lee explained by e-mail how his organization obtained the account. He wrote, “God has moved many brave Christians in China in interviewing and collecting the persecution cases. Then they smuggle these reports to us in the United States. In the past several years, we have received thousands and thousands of the bloody cases. (But) we have lost many people because of this.”
Lee added, “Due to the nature of our ministry, our organization has become the target of the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘secret force’ in the U.S. They tried various means to stop us, such as stalking, intimidating, etc. But ‘The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’”
With that in mind, Lee wrote, “What should we do when knowing what have happened to our brothers and sisters? Where is our own cross? ‘Jesus said, ‘And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:27)
A Tragic Story
According to the account from CIPRC, on Feb. 23 2003 four Christians were arrested and brutally tortured by police from Boli County, in China’s Heilongjiang Province.
Four policemen led by Weidong Sun from Chenxi Police Station drove two cars to Xiuying Chen’s home, and arrested Dan Deng, 38, an evangelist who rented a room there. There the police waited for three other Christians coming to meet Deng. They were Qingshan Qi, 29, Shengbin Man, 23, and Jiyan Cheng, 49.
At the police station, Sun and other officers surrounded Qi. Without any warning, Sun grabbed Qi’s hair and pushed his head between Sun’s thighs. The other two officers then kicked him in the back with leather shoes before slapping him on the face and kicking him on the ground for more than a half hour. Then they searched Qi, seizing 400 RMB ($50) and a variety of possessions. The police then demanded that Qi tell them the names of other Christians and where they met.
When Qi kept silent, the officers forced him into an excruciatingly painful posture known as “motorcycle-riding” – where the upper body is bent forward and one’s legs are stretched out. Officers then kicked Qi in the back between 50 and 60 times.
After about an hour, Sun took a chair and sat in front of Qi, saying, “I will see how long you can bear. I swear to make you confess!” Then with one hand holding Qi’s right arm, he used his other hand to hold a cigarette lighter and repeatedly burn Qi’s palm.
Later that day, Cheng was dragged into a room and put onto a “tiger” chair. There her legs were tightened, her left hand was tied to the chair’s low back while her right hand was attached to the upper back portion of the chair. Then the police officer forced her right arm down, making her scream in pain. When another officer saw that this wasn’t having the desired effect, he started slapping her face for a while.
Then another policeman came and continued the torture. Lifting Cheng’s clothes and starting from her breast and working on down, he pressed his fingers between her ribs. This caused such extreme pain she felt her heart was going to come out of her body.
The torture continued with a different officer – this one using a needle. He stuck the needle into Cheng’s knee between her bones a number of times and twisted it brutally. Then he started to poke her arms with the needle. Cheng’s legs were covered with bruises. Finally, the officer poked the needle through her upper lip.
Man was also beaten up. One policeman bashed his nose and followed that by grabbing his hair and smashing his head onto the wall. Sun pushed Man’s head against the corner of a steel cabinet, and then forced him to assume a posture known as “airplane-driving.” Another officer kicked Man on the back between 30 and 40 times for about an hour. The police confiscated his money and possessions. He was beaten again twice before being sent to the detention center.
Deng was interrogated for eight hours the next morning. He was brutalized so badly that his face was deformed.
Around 6:00pm the same day the police sent all the evangelists to the county North Jail. On March 10 they were transferred to the county detention center.
Qi was bailed out by his family at 4000 RMB ($500). He was released at about midnight on March 10.
Cheng was half dead from the torture before being released at midnight the same day.
Man was detained for 48 days. On April 12 his family bailed him out for 800 RMB ($100).
Deng was assigned to cook at the detention center but escaped and nobody knows where she is now.
According to CIPRC, the group was founded in 2000 in New York. Its objectives are to reveal the plight that the Chinese house church Christians have suffered, and to call on believers in the free world to help their brothers and sisters in the persecuted church.
For additional information about CIPRC go to www.china21.org
. 11:33:43 AM
|
|
© 2005 Radio Free China
Last Update: 1/2/2005; 6:05:43 PM
|
|
|
