2 Chinese sentenced to labour camp for protest request during Olympics
Published Wednesday August 20th, 2008
BEIJING - Two Chinese women in their 70s who applied to hold a protest during the Olympic Games were ordered to spend a year in a labour camp, a relative said Wednesday, as more foreign activists were detained.
Wu Dianyuan, 79, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, were notified Sunday that they were to serve a yearlong term of re-education through labour, said Wang's son, Li Xuehui. Officials did not specify a reason and still had not acted on the order, he said.
Instead, the pair were under the observation of a neighbourhood watch group and it was unclear if they would be sent to prison, he said.
"Wang Xiuying is almost blind and disabled. What sort of re-education through labour can she serve?" Li said in a telephone interview. "But they can also be taken away at any time."
The order followed the pair's repeated attempts to apply for permission to protest their forced eviction from their homes. China agreed to allow demonstrations in three designated areas during the games, which end Sunday. So far, there have been no protests in any of the official areas.
The re-education system, in place since 1957, allows police to sidestep the need for a criminal trial or a formal charge and send people to prison for up to four years to perform penal labour.
Critics say the system is often used to detain political or religious activists, and violates suspects' rights.
The Public Security Bureau had no immediate comment. A spokeswoman for the Beijing bureau that oversees re-education through labour said, "We have no records of these two names in our system."
Beijing has pointed to the special zones - public parks far away from Olympics venues - to defend its promise to improve human rights in China that was crucial to its bid to host the games.
But of some 77 applications that authorities have said were lodged, none were approved, and rights groups say the areas were just a way for the Chinese government to give the appearance of complying with international standards. A few who sought a permit to demonstrate were taken away by security officials, rights groups said.
"This is part of the arsenal of repressive tactics that the government has used to silence dissent," said Nicholas Bequelin of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. "China is riding roughshod over its promises to allow lawful protests during the games."
The cases of Wu and Wang "show that while China has now proven it is able to host international events to perfection, it still has a long way to go before it respects even minimal international human rights standards," he said. "The goal is to silence and deter them. This goal has been achieved."
Giselle Davies, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said past Olympic hosts have designated protest areas and that the body hoped Beijing would stick to its promise of allowing demonstrations.
Meanwhile, an activist group said five American bloggers have been detained since early Tuesday in Beijing. The bloggers, who did not have media credentials, were protesting China's policies in Tibet, said Kate Woznow, campaigns director for the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet.
They were the latest of more than a dozen foreign activists who have been detained in Beijing this month for launching similar protests. Most have been quickly deported.
Also Tuesday, another five Americans who unfurled a "Free Tibet" banner near an Olympics venue were detained along with U.S. graffiti artist James Powderly, who planned to use laser beams to flash a similar message on buildings in Beijing, said Woznow. Powderly was still in detention, though the others have been released, she said.
Protests have become common in China, where simmering resentment over layoffs, corruption, land confiscation and other issues explode into sometimes violent action. The communist leadership remains wary about large demonstrations, fearing they could snowball into anti-government movements.
The sensitivity is more marked during the Olympics, which is meant to showcase China to the world.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang declined to discuss the specifics of the protest policy at a regular news conference Wednesday. "In China, like in other countries, to apply for a demonstration, you have to obey the law," he said.
Wu and Wang, diminutive, grey-haired women, seem like unlikely activists.
Wang, who used to sell ice cream, walks with a wooden cane, one hand holding onto Wu for support.
But Li said they have been fighting since being kicked out of their Beijing homes in 2001 to make way for redevelopment. A year later, their electricity at a temporary home was cut because they refused to sign papers allowing the developer to provide them with a second home.
They complained to district officials, then to city authorities, and finally demonstrated 16 times this year in two of Beijing's most sensitive areas - Tiananmen Square and Zhongnanhai, the compound where China's leaders live and work.
"Defending the rights of the people is still such a difficult thing even 60 years after the establishment of the republic," Li said.
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