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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
11 August 2009
China: Free Sichuan earthquake activists
On the eve of the scheduled trial of Tan Zuoren on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”, Amnesty International urges the Chinese authorities to drop the politically-motivated prosecution against him and fellow earthquake activist Huang Qi, whose “state secrets” trial was conducted last week, and to release them both immediately and unconditionally.
Tan Zuoren is accused of defaming the Chinese Communist Party and the government with his online coverage of the authorities’ handling of the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
“Whether commenting on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown or seeking answers for the deaths during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Tan Zuoren was doing nothing more than exercising his right to freedom of expression guaranteed in China’s Constitution,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “To equate this with subversion denies not only his rights and those of the victims he is assisting and commemorating but also makes a mockery of criminal law and procedure.”
Local sources believe that Tan Zuoren’s detention is linked to his intention to publicly issue, on the first anniversary of the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, an independent report on the collapse of school buildings where numerous students perished. The collapse of the buildings has been linked to alleged corruption in the construction process. Despite public demands for an independent inquiry into such matters, Chinese authorities have denied allegations of corruption and shoddy construction, kept a tight lid on the death toll of students and only announced the number – 5,335 – four days before the first anniversary of the earthquake.
Huang Qi’s three-hour closed-door trial on 5 August ended without a verdict. The court prohibited witnesses from testifying on Huang Qi’s behalf on state secrets grounds. Police interrogated him for hours at a time, sometimes depriving him of sleep, about the assistance he gave to parents of students who died during the earthquake in bringing legal cases against the local authorities. Tan Zuoren’s trial will likely lack the same due process guarantees.
“The assistance that Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren provided to earthquake survivors seeking redress and the independent information they gathered on the earthquake only furthered the goal of reconciliation and justice. The authorities should welcome such actions by activists instead of hindering and persecuting these individuals” said Rife.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public statement
AI Index: ASA 17/022/2009
13 May 2009
China: Immediately release all recently detained earthquake survivors
Chinese authorities should immediately release recently detained survivors and parents who attempted to mourn for the children who died during the earthquake in Sichuan last year.
According to US-based Radio Free Asia, on 9 May, authorities in Dujianyan unlawfully sent six parents of children from the Xinjian Primary School to the neighbouring Hubei province to prevent them from speaking to foreign journalists who came to Sichuan province to cover the first anniversary of the earthquake. These parents have not yet returned home.
Radio Free Asia further reported that on 11 May, Dujiangyan police detained two parents of children from the Juyuan Middle School, one of whom was able to telephone out and claimed to be kept in a hostel in the suburbs before the line was cut. It is unclear if the two parents have now returned home or not.On 12 May the authorities also took away approximately 50 parents from Juyuan town and Chongyi town to Pi county after they burned paper offerings for their children and released them only after Hu Jintao had completed the official commemoration ceremony for the first anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake.
The intimidation of earthquake survivors is an outrage and contradicts the notion of a “harmonious society” and “putting people first” that Chinese leaders have been promoting. Prohibiting grieving parents from mourning is completely unjustified. And detaining them to prevent them from speaking out is unlawful.
Background
On 4 May, Amnesty International released a report Justice Denied: Harassment of Sichuan earthquake survivors and activists, which documents instances where some parents and relatives were placed under unlawful and arbitrary detention and prohibited from petitioning to Beijing. The report also documents instances in which parents are denied access to legal remedies and obstructed from seeking investigation on the collapse of many school buildings. The report and a web action to call on the Chinese authorities to provide justice to the earthquake survivors are both available online.
Amnesty International
4 May 2009
China: End the harassment of Sichuan earthquake survivors and activists
The Chinese authorities intimidated and unlawfully detained parents and relatives of children who died in the devastating Sichuan earthquake and harassed activists and lawyers who tried to assist them says a new Amnesty International report released on the anniversary of the disaster.
Amnesty Internationals’ report Justice Denied: Harassment of Sichuan earthquake survivors and activists documents instances where some parents and relatives were detained for up to 21 days for trying to seek answers from officials about why their children died. Some have been detained repeatedly and the youngest detainee was only eight years old.
“By unlawfully locking up parents of children who died, the government is creating more misery for people who have said in some cases they lost everything in the Sichuan Earthquake,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Deputy Program Director. “The government of China must cease harassing earthquake survivors who are seeking answers and trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.”
Amnesty International’s report found that in some cases the authorities had prevented parents and relatives from complaining to higher officials about the quality of the buildings that collapsed in the earthquake and many were subjected to arbitrary detention or unlawful surveillance to prevent them from pursuing legal remedies.
Some activists who offered assistance and representatives of parents are facing politically-motivated trials for vaguely defined state security and public order maintenance crimes.
The authorities have also denied grieving parents access to courts to determine who should bear the responsibly for the collapse of the schools and the deaths of their children. In a directive issued by the provincial court in Sichuan province, all lower courts are banned from accepting cases deemed sensitive, including disputes over compensation for personal injuries or damages to property caused by the collapse of buildings, and disputes over compensation by insurance companies until further instructions are given by relevant departments.
“The human toll of the Sichuan earthquake was incalculable but authorities need to do everything in their power to protect the rights of the survivors and stop the unlawful detentions as well as allow lawyers and civil society to pursue their important functions of accountability,” said Roseann Rife.
Amnesty International calls on the Chinese authorities to take immediate action to ensure the justice system works for parents and survivors by allowing them unhindered access to independent and impartial tribunals and lawyers and activists who have offered assistance.
The report Justice denied: Harassment of Sichuan earthquake survivors and activists includes interviews with parents whose children died during the earthquake, lawyers, legal experts, scholars and rights activists and English translations of circulars issued by Sichuan Higher People’s Court instructing lower courts not to accept earthquake-related cases which are deemed sensitive.
