Open letter to Hu Jintao: country above the law steps up dissident arrests
Human Rights Watch reveals how all the activists who are being imprisoned, are merely seeking the application of Chinese law, but the central government prefers to turn a blind eye to repression at local level.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) Human rights activists from around the world have called on President Hu Jintao to stop a wave of arrests of dissidents, who are being imprisoned just because they call for justice and a proper application of Chinese law. They say this strategy is increasingly sapping confidence in the Chinese legal system, which allows violations by courts and the forces of order to go unpunished.
Sent by Human Rights Watch and supported by activists, lawyers and scholars, the letter urges President Hu to protect the civil rights of all those people who have been arrested in recent months for fighting for social justice.
China has recently arrested at least 100 activists fighting for democracy at village level, for ecology, and against corruption, spiriting away or threatening their defence lawyers.
The letter said: "We note with concern the sharp increase in official retaliation against such advocates and their families through persistent harassment, banishment, detention, arrest and imprisonment." The letter said the authorities were increasingly resorting to defence of "state-secrets" as a reason for such violence. In fact, the government has had several journalists arrested, held guilty of having communicated news abroad that was considered to be "state secret". Among them is the researcher Zhao Yan, linked to the New York Times.
All this undermines the confidence of Chinese citizens in the Chinese legal system. "It is urgent that China's central leadership not look the other way when local courts and law enforcement officials ignore China's laws and legal procedures with impunity."
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