China
11.04.05
Urgent Interventions
China: Acts of harassment against Mr Ma Wenbao
URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY
CHN 001 / 0405 / OBS 023
Harassment
China
April 11, 2005
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in China.
Brief description of the situation:
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has been informed by Human Rights in China (HRIC) that a National People’s Congress delegate, Mr. Ma Wenbao, was suffering official harassment after speaking out on behalf of Xi’an residents brutalised in a forced relocation scheme.
According to the information received, local officials mobilised a municipal and civilian force that included members of organised crime rings to carry out a forced clearance in the city’s Lianhu District at about 11 a.m. on March 30, 2005. Lianhu District Clearance Office director Mr. Yao Xiaoling and vice-director Mr. Ma Long allegedly headed the group of more than 120 clearance workers, armed with knives and clubs and accompanied by earth movers, who destroyed more than 30 homes in the district’s Beimadao Lane. The clearance team reportedly threatened with violence against any who dared to oppose them, and when some residents did offer resistance, they were severely beaten. At least 11 people were allegedly hospitalised as a result of the violent clearance operation.
Residents called the police for assistance during the operation, but after two hours no police had turned up. They then telephoned the local media, only to be told that the media had been instructed from “higher up” not to take notice of any incidents occurring in that district. Finally, at about 2 p.m., more than 200 residents of the clearance district, accompanied by hundreds of onlookers, marched in protest to the Xi’an Municipal Government offices.
The incident is said to be the result of plans to widen Beimadao Lane. Local residents rejected compensation of only 1,500 yuan per square meter, which was barely more than half of the minimum of 2,700 yuan per square meter offered to residents displaced by clearances elsewhere in the city. Many of the residents not only lived in their homes, but also earned their livelihoods from small shops and businesses they operated there, and they were offered no compensation for their loss of income.
The violent clearance operation raised considerable controversy within the city. Mr. Ma Wenbao publicly took up the cause of the displaced residents, saying that their treatment contravened China’s international and domestic humanitarian and human rights obligations. Mr. Ma also called for action to be taken against Messrs. Yao Xiaoling and Ma Long for utilising organised crime figures in the clearance. Mr. Ma Wenbao’s outspokenness reportedly offended Lianhu District’s party secretary general and district head and, as a result, Mr. Ma has been put under close surveillance, and his phone calls are being monitored.
Action requested:
Please write to the Chinese authorities, urging them to:
i. put an immediate end to any kind of threats and harassment against Mr. Ma Wenbao, as well as against all human rights defenders in China;
ii. conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations’ General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular 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 articles 6(b) and (c) which provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others (…) to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms” and “to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters”;
iii. conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with other international instruments binding China, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees the right to housing.
Addresses:
*****
Geneva-Paris, April 11, 2005
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax FIDH: + 33 1 43 55 25 18 / + 33 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and Fax OMCT: + 41 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29
CHN 001 / 0405 / OBS 023
Harassment
China
April 11, 2005
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in China.
Brief description of the situation:
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has been informed by Human Rights in China (HRIC) that a National People’s Congress delegate, Mr. Ma Wenbao, was suffering official harassment after speaking out on behalf of Xi’an residents brutalised in a forced relocation scheme.
According to the information received, local officials mobilised a municipal and civilian force that included members of organised crime rings to carry out a forced clearance in the city’s Lianhu District at about 11 a.m. on March 30, 2005. Lianhu District Clearance Office director Mr. Yao Xiaoling and vice-director Mr. Ma Long allegedly headed the group of more than 120 clearance workers, armed with knives and clubs and accompanied by earth movers, who destroyed more than 30 homes in the district’s Beimadao Lane. The clearance team reportedly threatened with violence against any who dared to oppose them, and when some residents did offer resistance, they were severely beaten. At least 11 people were allegedly hospitalised as a result of the violent clearance operation.
Residents called the police for assistance during the operation, but after two hours no police had turned up. They then telephoned the local media, only to be told that the media had been instructed from “higher up” not to take notice of any incidents occurring in that district. Finally, at about 2 p.m., more than 200 residents of the clearance district, accompanied by hundreds of onlookers, marched in protest to the Xi’an Municipal Government offices.
The incident is said to be the result of plans to widen Beimadao Lane. Local residents rejected compensation of only 1,500 yuan per square meter, which was barely more than half of the minimum of 2,700 yuan per square meter offered to residents displaced by clearances elsewhere in the city. Many of the residents not only lived in their homes, but also earned their livelihoods from small shops and businesses they operated there, and they were offered no compensation for their loss of income.
The violent clearance operation raised considerable controversy within the city. Mr. Ma Wenbao publicly took up the cause of the displaced residents, saying that their treatment contravened China’s international and domestic humanitarian and human rights obligations. Mr. Ma also called for action to be taken against Messrs. Yao Xiaoling and Ma Long for utilising organised crime figures in the clearance. Mr. Ma Wenbao’s outspokenness reportedly offended Lianhu District’s party secretary general and district head and, as a result, Mr. Ma has been put under close surveillance, and his phone calls are being monitored.
Action requested:
Please write to the Chinese authorities, urging them to:
i. put an immediate end to any kind of threats and harassment against Mr. Ma Wenbao, as well as against all human rights defenders in China;
ii. conform with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations’ General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular 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 articles 6(b) and (c) which provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others (…) to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms” and “to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters”;
iii. conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with other international instruments binding China, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees the right to housing.
Addresses:
- President Hu Jintao, People’s Republic of China, c/o Embassy of the People’s Republic of China; 2300 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 20008, USA, Fax: +01 202 588-0032
- President Hu Jintao, People’s Republic of China, c/o Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China, Chemin de Surville 11, Case postale 85, 1213 Petit-Lancy 2, Genève, Suisse, Fax: +41 22 7937014, E-mail: mission.china@ties.itu.int
- Minister of Justice of the People’s Republic of China, Zhang Fusen Buzhang, Sifabu, 10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie, Chaoyangqu, Beijingshi 100020, People’s Republic of China, Fax: +86 10 6529 2345
- Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Li Zhaoxing Buzhang Waijiaobu, 2 Chaoyangmen Nandajie, Beijingshi 100701, People’s Republic of China, Fax: +86 10 6588 2594, Email: ipc@fmprc.gov.cn
- Ambassadeur, Sha Zukang, Mission permanente de la Rép. Pop. De Chine, Ch. De Surville, CP 85, 1213 Petit-Lancy 2, Suisse, e-mail: mission.china@ties.itu.int, Fax : +41 22 793 70 14
*****
Geneva-Paris, April 11, 2005
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders, and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
To contact the Observatory, call the Emergency Line:
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
Tel and Fax FIDH: + 33 1 43 55 25 18 / + 33 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and Fax OMCT: + 41 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29