THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 08, 2001
UN official warns China on crackdown in Xinjiang
BEIJING: United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson began a visit to China on Thursday with a warning to her hosts not to use the war against terror as an excuse for repression in Xinjiang and Tibet.
Robinson told reporters in Beijing that she would raise individual cases of prisoners as well as her concerns about the "widespread" use of torture in China and the treatment of people in the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
Robinson, who is due to attend discussions on human rights education and meet President Jiang Zemin during her two day trip, began the visit by signing an agreement between the UN and China on further cooperation in human rights dialogue during 2002.
Afterwards, answering questions alongside co-signatory Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya, she made it clear that measures to crack down on terrorism should not be used to justify rights abuses. The former Irish president said she was concerned at "a worrying trend in a number of countries to use the excuse of combating terrorism to clamp down on freedom of expression and legitimate dissent which is not violent".
She specifically highlighted the situation of the ethnic Uighhur Muslim population of Xinjiang, China's furthest west region, where rights groups have claimed a crackdown against separatists has been stepped up since the September 11 attacks on the United States.
In anti-terror campaigns "there must also be very clear boundaries, and I am worried specifically about the Uighur population in Xinjiang, I am worried about the situation in areas like Tibet for example, which I wish to raise", she said.
Any cooperation with China over rights issues would not blunt further criticism, she pledged. "I adopt a two pronged approach. One is to encourage this cooperation and the other is to express concerns about serious situations of human rights violations or shortcomings, that I will also do."
Among issues she would raise was the "widespread" problem of torture, Robinson said. "I will also raise some individual cases and express concerns. I do this in each country that I visit." However despite previous discussions "I haven't had as much progress on individual cases as I have wished to," she added.
One case Robinson is thought likely to raise on what is her sixth trip to China is that of Xu Wenli, China's most celebrated dissident, who has been in prison for 17 of the past 21 years. Xu's wife appealed to Robinson on Tuesday to seek the release of her ailing husband, currently in jail for helping in the organisation of the China Democracy Party.
Earlier on Thursday the New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) group ha d expressed concern at a lack of progress on individual freedoms within the country. Despite a year of UN-China cooperation on the issue, "the government has done little to give practical meaning to international human rights standards", it said in a statement.
Analysts have warned that however tough Robinson is with her hosts, international attention is probably too firmly focused on the anti-terror coalition, of which China is a part, to place much pressure on Beijing over human rights. ( AFP )
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