WEDNESDAY, MAY 01, 2002
Amnesty slams China for torturing workers
AFP
BEIJING: In a report timed ahead of International Labour Day, Amnesty International on Tuesday slammed China's use of imprisonment and even torture to keep blue-collar activists quiet. "Protests by angry workers over lay-offs, wage arrears, poor working conditions, and management corruption have been met with repression and force," the London-based organization said. "Clashes between workers and armed police have resulted in casualties and arrests," it said. The report appeared against the backdrop of unrest sweeping across northeast China's rustbelt in some of the biggest labour action to hit the country in recent years. In the industrial city of Liaoyang, simmering discontent culminated in mid-March when workers demonstrated for nearly two weeks over lay-offs and corruption, and four labor leaders were arrested. The Liaoyang protests erupted at the same time as up to 50,000 retrenched workers demonstrated in the oil town of Daqing, also in China's northeast. That could be only the tip of the iceberg, and the public inside and outside China may only get to know about the most high-profile incidents, Amnesty suggested. "Such demonstrations are often unreported as the local authorities attempt to conceal the severity or extent of the protests," Amnesty said. Labour activists and supporters typically get detained and beaten during or immediately after demonstrations, and are then released shortly afterwards, the report said. Organizers of demonstrations may face more severe sanctions, and some have been formally charged and imprisoned for long periods of time, it added. Amnesty released a long list of labour activists held in Chinese prisons, detailing their experiences in jail which reportedly included frequent beatings and periods of solitary confinement. Cao Maobing, a labour activist in the eastern city of Funing, spent seven months in Yancheng No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital in 2001 and was forcibly given drugs and electric shock treatment, Amnesty said. The report also reiterated previously-aired allegations that little is done by jail authorities to treat diseases that many prisoners contract while in detention. It cited the case of Zhang Shanguang, a former teacher and labour activist from central Hunan province, who is suffering from a serious lung illness. Zhang has not only been denied medical attention, but has also been made to do heavy physical work in fetters, the report said. "Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese authorities to allow workers in China full and free exercise of their rights to freedom of association and expression," the group said. "(This includes) the right to form independent trade unions and to peaceful protests, without fear of detention or torture," it said. Amnesty said that several attempts had been made to establish independent trade unions since the 1980s, but that all were quickly repressed. China refuses to allow independent trade unions, even as its millions of workers are obliged to make ever larger sacrifices. Unemployed workers are often promised redundancy money and pensions which never appear, in some cases because corrupt officials have pocketed the funds, Amnesty said. Those who do work are not much better off, facing harsh conditions including compulsory overtime work and curbs on conversations and visits to the toilet, it said. The organization also mentioned the large number of industrial accidents in China, saying that an estimated 1,200 people died in the first six months of last year.
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