在被刪除前請閱讀

“The world should speak out on China’s human rights”
By Emily Lau of The Frontier in Hong Kong
4 August 2008

The Olympic Games will open in Beijing later this week, yet there are no signs that the Chinese Government will honour its promise to improve human rights and enhance democracy. In 2001 when Beijing made the bid to host the Games, it gave such an undertaking. Now that the event is about to begin, the pledge appears to have gone with the wind.

According to a report by Amnesty International to mark the 10-day countdown to the Olympics, the Chinese authorities have locked up, put under house arrest and forcibly removed individuals they believe may threaten the image of “stability” and “harmony” they want to present to the world.

“By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the Games seven years ago,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Director.

The Chinese Government has denied Amnesty’s accusation, insisting that human rights in China have improved a lot in the last few decades. Beijing also urged Amnesty and others not to interfere in China’s internal affairs, a pretext often used to deflect accusations of human rights violations. In a rare press conference, President Hu Jintao told a collection of handpicked foreign journalists to respect Chinese laws and not to politicize the Olympic Games.

Members of The Frontier delivered an open letter addressed to President Hu to the Central Government Liaison Office in the Western District on 3 August to remind Beijing to keep its promise by releasing all political dissidents and human rights lawyers before the start of the Games.

One of the cases The Frontier highlighted in the letter is that of housing activist Ye Guozhu. Mr Ye has served a four-year sentence for” picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” because of his opposition to the seizure and demolition of property to make way for construction projects for the Olympic Games.

Although his prison sentence expired on 26 July, the Chinese Government decided to keep him in jail until at least 1 October, after the end of the Olympic Games. Such lawless behaviour has shocked the international community and inflicted untold damage on Beijing’s reputation. It also shows the Olympics has made human rights situation worse in China.

As for Beijing’s promise of “complete media freedom” for the Games, it is nothing but a farce. The Amnesty report said journalists are barred from covering sensitive stories and prevented from conducting interviews. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China reported 260 cases of reporting interference since the start of 2007.

Last month Hong Kong journalists covering the chaos surrounding the sale of Olympic Games tickets were manhandled by public security guards. Some reporters were pushed to the ground and their cameras smashed.

Since the Olympic Village press centre opened on 25 July, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages, including those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests on Tianmen Square in 1989 and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers.

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that Beijing places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, that Beijing had agreed to provide full Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr Rogge had long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

This, apparently, is not so. It is understood the Chinese authorities would continue to censor Web sites that are deemed harmful to national security and social stability. Regrettably, the IOC can and will do precious little to stop it.

As world leaders flock to Beijing to attend the Olympic Games, they should raise their voice publicly for human rights in China and in support of individuals Chinese human rights activists. A failure to do so would send the message that it is acceptable for a government to host the Olympic Games in an atmosphere of repression and persecution.

In Hong Kong, a Chinese city which still enjoys certain freedoms, we must stand in the front line of defense of civil liberties and the rule of law.

ENDS