Mr. President,
According to the information received from Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD), on June 10, 2006, Mr. Chen Guangcheng, a human rights activist in Linyi, Shandong, had been charged with “deliberate destruction of property” and “organizing a mob to disrupt traffic” after 89 days of detention at Yinan County Detention Center. In the spring of 2005, Mr. Chen had denounced the violence in the implementation of family planning policies in Linyi, and since then, the local authorities have tried to undermine and intimidate him and his supporters through close surveillance, threats, house arrest and arbitrary detention. On March 11, 2006, under the pretext they had blocked traffic, local police officers questioned and arrested Mr. Chen. On June 11, 2006, his family has been informed for the first time, and after 89 days in detention of the reasons for his detention and of his whereabouts.
On May 12, 2006, Mr. Guo Qizhen, a human rights activist in Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, and a volunteer at Tianwang Disappeared Persons Service Center helping victims publicizing their stories on the internet, was placed under house arrest by local security forces, while he was joining the hunger strike against the Chinese government’s repression of human rights activists organized by lawyer Mr. Gao Zhinsheng. On June 6, 2006, he was reportedly been charged for “suspicion of inciting subversion of state power”. Mr. Guo, who suffers from severe neurasthenia, would currently be held at the Cangzhou City No. 2 Detention Center.
Furthermore, since May 30, 2006, Mrs. Ding Zilin and Mrs. Zhang Xialing, respectively Head and Spokesperson of the Tiananmen Mothers, a group of family members of people killed or injured in the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, were closely monitored by the police. Mrs. Ding was denied any visit and was only allowed to be brought by police officers to the hospital.
The Observatory considers the detention of MM. Chen Guangcheng and Guo Qizhen to be arbitrary, as it sanctions their human rights activities, and we wish to call upon you to immediately release them, and to put an end to the house arrest of Mrs. Ding Zilin and Mrs. Zhang Xialing, as well as to guarantee their physical and psychological integrity in all circumstances.
Besides, the Observatory urges you to put an end to any act of harassment against all human rights defenders in China, and to conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and article 12.2, which states that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”.
More generally, the Observatory calls upon the authorities to comply with international human rights standards and international instruments signed or ratified by the People’s Republic of China.
In the hope that you will take these considerations and requests into account,
We remain,
Sidiki Kaba Eric Sottas
President of FIDH Director of OMCT