Secondo
l�Alto Commissario ONU per i diritti umani Robinson la guerra in
Afghanistan ha permesso ai cinesi di intensificare la repressione e di
moltiplicare le esecuzioni di esponenti della minoranza turca mussulmana e
della setta Falun Gong
- November 10
U.N.
Official Fears China Uses Terror War as Front for Abuses
By
ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
BEIJING,
� The top United Nations human rights official expressed concern
here today that the American-led campaign against terrorism had given
license to the Chinese government to intensify a crackdown against its
Muslim minority and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect.
"Because
of the coalition to curb terrorism, governments are not as prepared to
raise the issue of human rights," said Mary Robinson, the United
Nations' high commissioner for human rights, at the end of a two- day
visit here. "That is my job."
Mrs.
Robinson said that in her meeting with China's top leaders, including
President Jiang Zemin, she had raised a number of concerns, from the use
of torture by the police to extract confessions to the widespread use of
the death penalty.
This
year, in the middle of a government-sponsored "Strike Hard"
campaign against crime, she said there was evidence that large numbers of
people had been executed after quick and cursory trials.
Still,
she said she continued to see a greater willingness on the part of the
Chinese government to discuss human rights issues.
During
her visit, the United Nations group and the Chinese government signed an
agreement to work together on a program of human rights education for the
police, judges, prison administrators and lawyers.
"There
is a recognition of serious problems and an openness in addressing them,"
she said. "But in dealing with individual cases there is much less
progress, and indeed there has been some movement in the wrong
direction."
One
of her more pressing concerns, she said, were reports from rights groups
that Chinese Muslims of the Uighur ethnic minority had been increasingly
subjected to detention and abuse by the police since China signed on to
the coalition against terrorism.
Uighurs,
who mostly live in Xinjiang Province in western China, have long chafed
under heavy-handed rule from Beijing and have pressed for more autonomy. A
tiny radical movement has undertaken rare acts of violence in pursuit of
that goal, mostly car bombings.
The
Chinese vice premier, Qian Qichen, told Mrs. Robinson that the government
believed that 1,000 Uighurs have trained in Afghanistan in Al Qaeda camps.
But scholars both here and in the West say that Uighurs have little
interest in Taliban- style fundamentalism and have put the number of Al
Qaeda trainees much lower, perhaps in the dozens.
Robinson
Stresses Xinjiang and Torture in China
By
Jeremy Page
BEIJING
- U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said
Thursday she would urge China not to use a war on terrorism to crack down
on civil liberties and ethnic minorities, especially in its Muslim
northwest.
On
her first visit to China since the September 11 attacks on the United
States, Robinson also said she would press Beijing to set a date for a
long-awaited visit by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture.
``It
is necessary to ensure that the requirement to combat terrorism is not
used to clamp down on freedom of expression, legitimate dissent, freedom
of association and so on,'' Robinson told Reuters in an interview.
``I'll
particularly raise the problem of the Uighur people in Xinjiang and other
individual cases,'' said Robinson, shortly before starting two days of
talks with China's leadership, including President Jiang Zemin (news - web
sites).
China
has called for international support for its campaign against ethnic
Uighur Muslim separatists in the northwestern region of Xinjiang whom it
says have links to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the man wanted by
Washington for the September 11 attacks.
Uighur
militants have been blamed for sporadic attacks in China, including bus
bombs in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, in 1997 that killed nine people.
But
human rights groups, Uighurs overseas and Western experts on Xinjiang say
most Uighur activists have no links with bin Laden and campaign peacefully
for greater political, economic and religious freedoms.
London-based
rights group Amnesty International has said China has executed several
hundred Uighurs accused of separatist activities since the mid-1990s and
detained, imprisoned or tortured thousands more.
Police
in Xinjiang said last month they had launched a fresh campaign against
crime, including separatism and terrorism, sparking fears among rights
activists of another wave of arrests and executions.
``The
information that I've been given is that there is a serious situation of
imprisonment, detention and torture,'' Robinson said of the situation in
Xinjiang.
SETTING
A DATE
Torture
would be high on the agenda in her meetings with Chinese leaders,
including Jiang Friday, Robinson said.
``I
will be raising the issue of addressing the problem of torture here in
China,'' she said. ``I will be pressing for a date for the visit of the
special rapporteur on torture.''
China
has said it is willing to negotiate the terms of a visit, but has not made
direct contact with the current special rapporteur, British law professor
Sir Nigel Rodley, Robinson said.
Rodley
has been seeking a visit to China since 1996, but Beijing has refused to
agree to give him access to detention centers of his choice and private
interviews with inmates.
Rodley
is stepping down from his post next week and some diplomats say China is
hoping his successor will be more flexible on the terms of a visit.
But
Robinson said the special rapporteur would definitely need to be able to
talk freely to prisoners.
``I
am aware that for the special rapporteur to come it would have to be clear
that there would be access and the opportunity to talk to prisoners out of
the hearing of officials,'' Robinson said.
Robinson also signed an agreement with China on the
second phase of a project to improve education about human rights among
police, judges, lawyers and prison administrators.
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