http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/336219057
"Little over two years ago, plainspoken businessman Dhondup Wangchen bought a small camera and began interviewing monks and yak herders for his documentary film Leaving Fear Behind. He bravely gave a voice to Tibetans living under China's rule. Sadly, after finishing the film, he was arrested and his own voice was silenced.
As a prisoner of the Chinese government, Wangchen:
* endured torture to extract a confession.
* contracted hepatitis B and is denied adequate treatment.
* had the lawyer he chose replaced with a government-appointed one--violating his right to choose his own counsel and denying him access to independent legal assistance.
Wangchen's arrest and sentence of 6 years in prison prove that the Chinese government will not allow Tibetans any expression that opposes Chinese rule. Tell the Chinese government to release Dhondup Wangchen and to uphold the right to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial in future cases."
I have just signed. May be it will help to liberate him, may be not... but if we do not try the answer is going to be NO again and again.
Amnesty International in Germany writes this:
"Bitte schreiben Sie höflich formulierte Briefe an die Justizministerin und fordern Sie sie auf, Dhondup Wangchen umgehend und bedingungslos freizulassen. Dringen Sie darauf, dass eine gründliche und unparteiische Untersuchung der von Dhondup Wangchen erhobenen Foltervorwürfe durchgeführt wird und die Verantwortlichen vor Gericht gestellt werden.
Schreiben Sie in gutem Chinesisch, Englisch oder auf Deutsch an:
Minister of Justice Wu Aiying Buzhang Sifabu
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu
Beijingshi 100020
VOLKSREPUBLIK CHINA
(korrekte Anrede: Your Excellency)
Standardbrief Luftpost bis 20 g: € 1,70
Senden Sie bitte eine Kopie ihres Schreibens an:
Botschaft der Volksrepublik China
S.E. Herrn Wu Hongbo
Märkisches Ufer 54
10179 Berlin
Fax: 030-27588221
E-Mail: chinesischeBotschaft@debitel.net
chinaemb_de@mfa.gov.cn
de@mofcom.gov.cn
Sources:
Foto von Amnesty International in Germany, site:
http://www.amnesty.de/briefe-gegen-das-vergessen/2010/3/dhondup-wangchen?destination=suche%3Fwords-advanced%3Ddhondup%2Bwangchen%26search_x%3D0%26search_y%3D0%26search%3DSuchen%26country%3D%26topic%3D%26node_type%3D%26from_month%3D0%26from_year%3D%26to_month%3D0%26to_year%3D%26form_id%3Dai_search_form
This link is long, I know: it was the only one it works properly as I have tried to go into the site after writing this Review (no idea why!).
You can find there the complete information about this issue but in Amnesty International here as well:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/011/2009/en/82100598-017f-4023-8acb-204cc0281def/asa170112009en.html
By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai
Published: December 29 2009 05:35 | Last updated: December 29 2009 05:35
China has executed a British national despite pleas from the UK government, which claimed he was mentally ill and unfit to stand trial.
Tuesday’s execution of Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen caught smuggling heroin to China, prompted immediate condemnation by Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister.
“I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted,” Mr Brown said in a statement issued by the British Foreign Office. ”I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken.”
A father of five, Mr Shaikh, was killed on Tuesday in Urumqi, the capital of China’s westernmost province of Xinjiang.
Mr Shaikh’s execution is the first of a European Union national in China in 50 years, according to the charity Reprieve, which campaigns for death row prisoners globally. China carried out more executions than the rest of the world put together last year, Amnesty International said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Chinese Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Mr Shaikh. The official Xinhua news agency said the UK government failed to provide sufficient proof that Mr Shaikh was suffering from mental illness.
According to family members, Mr Shaikh – who said he did not know that drugs were in the suitcase – travelled to China in the belief that he was going to be helped to begin a career as a singer.
A few years earlier, he left the UK for Poland with the aim of starting an airline. A preliminary psychological report prepared by Reprieve concluded that he suffered from “delusional psychosis”.
The execution could worsen relations between the two countries but early signs of Chinese public opinion showed widespread approval for the move.
On the website Sohu.com, all respondents commenting on news of the impending execution approved of it. One commented that ”during the (19th century) Opium Wars, illegal drugs came from the UK to China, bringing shame to China. Now we should fight against heroin from overseas, and whoever has broken the law should be sentenced to death.”
“This is not about how much we hate the drug trade. Britain as well as China are completely committed to take it on,” the British foreign secretary, David Milliband, said in a statement emailed to reporters. “The issue is whether Mr Shaikh has become an additional victim of it.”
Earlier this year, Beijing caused a diplomatic rift with the Australian government by detaining four employees of miner Rio Tinto, including on Australian passport holder, on charges of spying. The men were accused of using confidential commercial information to give the Australian miner the upper hand in annual iron ore price negotiations.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
By Geoff Dyer in Beijing
Published: December 28 2009 15:09 | Last updated: December 28 2009 15:09
A British man is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday in China for heroin smuggling, in a case which has drawn international condemnation of China’s criminal justice system and death penalty procedures.
Two relatives of Akmal Shaikh pleaded for clemency on Monday in Urumqi, capital of China’s north-western Xinjiang province where he is due to be executed after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal last week. Appeals for leniency from Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, have also been rejected.
Mr Shaikh, 53, was arrested in September 2007 after being detained in Urumqi with 4kg of heroin in his suitcase. His family and lawyers claim that he suffers from mental illness and that he was duped into bringing the drugs into China.
“We strongly feel he is not rational and he needs medication,” his cousin Soohail Shaikh told Associated Press on Monday. According to human rights groups, he would be the first European to be executed in China for more than half a century.
Although China does not publish figures on the death penalty, Amnesty International estimates there were at least 1700 executions last year – the highest number in the world – and other human rights groups believe the real figures could be much higher. Legal experts say that in the 1980s and 1990s, China significantly expanded the numbers of non-violent crimes that could receive a death penalty.
The death penalty has been the subject in recent years of a concerted reform effort, including a 2006 decision that all death sentences would be reviewed by the Supreme Court. State media reported that the Supreme Court overturned 10 per cent of all death sentences last year. In July, a senior official at the Supreme Court said that in the future the death penalty should be reserved for a much smaller list of serious crimes and said that lower courts would be encouraged to issue more suspended sentences.
Although China’s legal system does allow for mental illness to be taken into account in criminal cases, Mr Shaikh’s family say that his mental condition has never been evaluated during the trial process and appeals. Reprieve, the UK prisoner advocacy group, arranged for a psychiatrist to attend the trial in Urumqi last year. However, he was not allowed to interview Mr Shaikh or attend the judicial hearing.
According to family members, Mr Shaikh – who says he did not know drugs were in the suitcase – travelled to China in the belief that he was going to be helped to begin a career as a singer. A few years earlier, he left the UK and moved to Poland with the objective of starting an airline. A preliminary psychological report prepared by Reprieve concluded that he suffered from “delusional psychosis”.
China has defended the conviction, arguing that Mr Shaikh’s legal rights were protected. “This case has been dealt with according to law. Drug smuggling is a grave crime in international practice,” said Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry. “During the trial, the litigation rights and lawful interest of the defendant have been fully guaranteed.”
Jerome Cohen, an expert on the Chinese legal system at New York University, said in some past cases Chinese courts had reduced death sentences to life imprisonment after allowing a mental examination of the defendant. Given Mr Shaikh’s condition, “one might have expected the Supreme People’s Court to comply with Chinese law and international legal standards by requiring a thorough mental evaluation”, he said.
Earlier this year, state media reported that as many as two-thirds of organ donors in China could come from executed prisoners. Huang Jiefu, vice minister for health, said the government was establishing a nationwide organ-donation system to try to clamp down on the black market in organs from executed prisoners, although he admitted that hospitals sometimes bent the rules because of the large potential profits.
Death data
●China does not publish figures for executions, because they are considered a state secret. However, Amnesty International estimates at least 1,700 people were executed in 2008, although the “real figure is undoubtedly higher”.
●The number of executions has dropped sharply in recent years from as many 15,000 a year a decade ago.
●Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, said in July the number of capital crimes should be significantly reduced and more suspended sentences issued. More than 60 crimes can draw the death penalty.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
June 24, 2009
Jane Macartney in Beijing
China’s most prominent dissident has been arrested formally after more than six months in detention at a secret location near Beijing on charges that could bring a lengthy prison term.
Liu Xiaobo had been held virtually incommunicado under “residential surveillance”, being allowed only two visits from his wife, since he was taken from his Beijing home on December 8 – a day before publication of a document that he co-authored calling for democracy in China.
State media said: "Liu has been engaged in agitation activities, such as spreading of rumours and defaming of the Government, aimed at subversion of the State and overthrowing the socialism system in recent years." The arrest was made by the Beijing Public Security Bureau today.
It said that Mr Liu, 53, had confessed to the charges. This is the first time the long-time critic of the Government has faced such serious charges. He could be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years, his lawyer Mo Shaoping, said. He told The Times that he would demand an immediate meeting with Mr Liu.
Mr Liu's wife, Liu Xia, told The Times that the police came to her home in western Beijing this morning and handed her a formal document notifying her of the charges against her husband. “They have just been to my home. I am very worried and must speak to our lawyer,” she said.
Mr Liu was a well known and outspoken literary critic in the 1980s but sprang to international fame for his role during the student-led demonstrations centred in Beijing in the spring of 1989.
Mr Liu, along with a famed Taiwanese pop singer and two other intellectuals, joined the students in Tiananmen Square on June 2 in a hunger strike in support of their demand for greater freedom of speech and more democracy and to call for an end to corruption. He was with the students when tanks rolled into the heart of the city on the night of June 3 and 4 and helped to persuade the demonstrators not to make a stand and to leave the square without loss of life. Hundreds were killed elsewhere in the city in that crackdown.
He was detained for nearly two years in Beijing's notorious Qincheng prison, where China’s most prominent political leaders and dissidents have been held in the past few decades, but was not formally charged.
He continued to voice his criticism of the authorities and the Communist Party system. He was sentenced to three years of re-education through labour in the 1990s because of his repeated calls to the Government to reconsider its verdit that the student demonstrations were “counterrevolutionary”.
He was among the 303 initial signatories of Charter 08, a manifesto consciously modelled on the Charter 77 drawn up by Vaclav Havel in the former Czechoslovakia, but is the only one to have been detained. Since his arrest several thousand people have added their names to the charter that demands democracy in China.
Ms Liu told The Times in a recent interview:: “Xiaobo had thought he might be taken in for the anniversary of June 4 but he didn’t think that Charter 08 would cause his arrest.” She issued an appeal last week asking President Obama to raise his case.
Mr Liu's case has drawn intense international criticism, with the European Union and the United States demanding his quick release.
Novelists such as Salman Rushdie and the Italian Umberto Eco, as well as Nobel laureates in literature including the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, have also campaigned for him to be set free.
Source from Timesonline,com:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6566723.ece
Photo source: Reuters____________________________________________________________________________
24.06.2009, 11:31 Uhr
Demokratiebewegung
Die chinesischen Behörden haben Anklage gegen einen der prominentesten Bürgerrechtler des Landes, den Schriftsteller Liu Xiaobo, erhoben. Dem 53-Jährigen wird vorgeworfen, Gerüchte verbreitet und die Regierung diffamiert zu haben.
Liu Xiaobo, eines der prominentesten Mitglieder der chinesischen Demokratiebewegung, wird angeklagt. Quelle: ReutersLupe
HB PEKING. Dem vor einem halben Jahr inhaftierten Liu werde vorgeworfen, Gerüchte verbreitet, die Regierung diffamiert und sich damit eines Umsturzversuches schuldig gemacht zu haben. Das berichtete die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur Xinhua unter Berufung auf die Polizei.
Nach seiner Festnahme im vergangenen November hatten 150 Intellektuelle aus aller Welt - darunter die Schriftsteller Umberto Eco und Salman Rushdie - den Bürgerrechtler unterstützt und seine Freilassung gefordert. Der 53-jährige Liu war wenige Tage vor der Veröffentlichung der sogenannten "Charta 08" verhaftet worden. In dem Papier hatten die 303 Unterzeichner dargelegt, wie sie sich den Reformprozess in China hin zu einer liberalen Demokratie vorstellen. Gleichzeitig wird in der Charta, die dem Vorbild der "Charta 77" aus der früheren Tschechoslowakei folgt, ein Mangel an Freiheit, Gleichheit und Menschenrechten in China beklagt.
Neben Liu Xiaobo sind mindestens 100 weitere Unterzeichner der Erklärung verhaftet oder verhört worden. Der Schriftsteller wird nach Informationen der chinesischen Menschenrechtsorganisation China Human Rights Defenders an einem geheimen Ort unter Hausarrest festgehalten. Lius Anwalt dürfe seinen Mandanten nicht mehr vertreten, da er selbst die "Charta 08" unterzeichnet habe.
Die US-Menschenrechtsorganisation Human Right Watch sieht in der Festnahme des Schriftstellers den signifikantesten Fall des Vorgehens gegen Dissidenten in China seit zehn Jahren. Nach Darstellung der chinesischen Führung werde alle Fälle die Menschenrechte betreffend "im Einklang" mit dem Gesetz behandelt. Alle internationalen Appelle werden als "Einmischung" betrachtet.
Liu Xiaobo ist einer der bekanntesten Kritiker des kommunistischen Machtapparats in China und der Regierung seit Jahrzehnten ein Dorn im Auge. Ungeachtet aller Einschüchterungen durch die Staatssicherheit hat der Schriftsteller immer wieder seine Stimme für politische Reformen, Demokratie und Meinungsfreiheit erhoben. Obwohl Dissidenten während der Olympischen Spiele 2008 nicht mit ausländischen Journalisten sprechen sollten, war Liu Xiaobo zu Interviews bereit. Er kritisierte die Unterdrückung von Anwälten und Bürgerrechtlern im Zusammenhang mit den Spielen.
Vor einem halben Jahr wurde er festgenommen. Die offizielle Anklage wirft ihm jetzt einen Umsturzversuch vor. Er soll Gerüchte verbreitet und die Regierung diffamiert haben. Die Festnahme des bekannten Schriftstellers hatte im vergangenen November international eine Welle an Protesten ausgelöst. 150 Intellektuelle aus aller Welt, darunter die Schriftsteller Umberto Eco und Salman Rushdie setzten sich für eine Freilassung des 53- Jährigen ein.
Der im Dezember 1955 in Changchun in Nordostchina geborene Liu Xiaobo zählt seit zwei Jahrzehnten zu den wichtigsten Denkern der stark dezimierten Demokratiebewegung in China. Er steht seit 2003 dem chinesischen Pen-Club unabhängiger Schriftsteller vor.
Im Moment wird Liu Xiaobo Berichten zufolge an einem geheimen Ort unter Hausarrest gehalten. Doch er saß auch schon im Gefängnis: Bereits nach der blutigen Niederschlagung der Demokratiebewegung am 4. Juni 1989 kam Liu, der damals für seine Literaturkritiken und philosophischen Schriften bekannt war, fast zwei Jahre in Haft. Er hatte das Vorgehen der Studenten verteidigt und eine Aufklärung des Massakers gefordert. Liu verlor dabei auch seinen Posten als Dozent an der Universität. Nach seiner Haftentlassung wurde er wieder in der Dissidentenszene aktiv. 1996 landete er für drei Jahre in einem Umerziehungslager.
Mit der Entwicklung des Internets in China wurde Liu Xiaobo einer der profiliertesten Kritiker der chinesischen Blockaden von Webseiten und der Verfolgung systemkritischer Internetautoren. Die internationale Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen zeichnete ihn 2004 mit ihrem Preis für Pressefreiheit aus.
Nach den Unruhen der Tibeter im März vergangenen Jahres forderte Liu zusammen mit anderen Bürgerrechtlern einen Dialog der Regierung mit dem Dalai Lama und echte Religionsfreiheit auch in Tibet. Dennoch wandte er sich gegen Forderungen nach einem Boykott der Olympischen Spiele in Peking. In einem Interview mit der Deutschen Presse-Agentur dpa wies Liu damals die überzogenen Hoffnungen im Westen zurück, dass die Spiele in China zu mehr Freiheit führen könnten. "Für solche Veränderungen wären vielmehr politische Reformen nötig."
Liu Xiaobo zählt zu den Mitorganisatoren der "Charta 08", einer Petition für mehr Freiheit und Demokratie in China. Der Name des Appells lehnt sich an die "Charta 77" aus der früheren Tschechoslowakei und deren gleichnamige Bürgerbewegung an. Kurz vor Veröffentlichung der "Charta 08" zum 60. Jahrestag der Allgemeinen Menschenrechtserklärung der Vereinten Nationen wurde Liu Xiaobo im vergangenen Jahr verhaftet.
Quelle von Handelsblatt:
http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/chinesischer-buergerrechtler-angeklagt;2389713;0
Foto Quelle: Reuters
Breaking News Last updated: June 19 2009 14:37
China has ordered Google to suspend part of its search operations on its local website, in a show of force which could disrupt the company’s growth in the country and underscores the political risks of operating in China.
State media said on Friday that the authorities had “punished” Google China for linking to pornographic content. On Thursday, in a “law enforcement talk”, the government announced that Google China would be punished with orders to suspend foreign webpage searches and automated keywords, Xinhua, the official news agency, and China Central Television, the main state broadcaster, said.
Source:
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/QXZ6E/ULNSN/DGOKU/UEMPK/28/h
FOTO : I found it in Google at www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/dec28.html
Child Soldiers: Today, as many as 300,000 children under the age of 18 serve in government forces or armed rebel groups. Some are as young as eight years old.
The participation of child soldiers has been reported in 33 on-going or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world.
"Die chinesische Regierung hat ihre Militärpräsenz in Tibet und den angrenzenden Regionen offenbar massiv verstärkt. Der deutsche Journalist Georg Blume berichtete von Militärkonvois mit tausenden Sicherheitskräften auf dem Weg nach Lhasa. Er habe einen Konvoi von mindestens 200 Armeefahrzeugen mit je 30 Soldaten gesehen - das seien rund 6000 Sicherheitkräfte, die binnen eines Tages in Lhasa unterwegs gewesen seien, sagte er der britischen BBC. Nach Angaben des Journalisten, der unter anderem für "Die Zeit" schreibt, gingen in Lhasa Sicherheitskräfte von Haus zu Haus.
Ein in West-China ansässiger BBC-Journalist berichtete zudem, er habe mehr als 400 Militärfahrzeuge gezählt, die in Konvois von rund 80 Fahrzeugen in Richtung Tibet unterwegs seien. Einige Soldaten seien mit automatischen Waffen ausgerüstet, andere trügen Kampfanzüge und Schutzschilde.
Blume und die ebenfalls deutschsprachige Kollegin Kristin Kupfer wurden unmittelbar nach seinem BBC-Gespräch aus Tibet ausgewiesen. Sie gehören zu den letzten ausländischen Korrespondenten, die Lhasa verlassen mussten.
TOURISMUS UNTERBUNDEN
Tibet wurde auch für Touristen bis auf Weiteres abgeriegelt. Die chinesischen Behörden hätten Anweisung gegeben, derzeit keine Reiseerlaubnisse zu bewilligen, sagten Reiseveranstalter der Nachrichtenagentur AFP. Touristen, die bereits eine Tibet-Tour gebucht hätten und dafür auch eine Erlaubnis hätten, könnten ihre Reise nicht antreten, sagte die Managerin eines Reisebüros in der südwestchinesischen Provinz Sichuan. Auch für Einzelreisende sei es "für einige Zeit" unmöglich, nach Tibet zu gelangen.
Die Tourismusbehörden in Lhasa bestätigten, dass die Ausstellung von Reiseerlaubnissen bis auf weiteres auf Eis gelegt worden sei. Frühestens Anfang Mai könnten wieder Reisen genehmigt werden. Neben der Chinesischen Mauer, der Terrakotta-Armee im zentralchinesischen Xian und Sehenswürdigkeiten in Peking ist Tibet eines der beliebtesten Ziele für Urlauber.
DALAI LAMA WILL SICH MIT HU JINTAO TREFFEN
Der Dalai Lama erklärte sich unterdessen zu einem Treffen mit dem chinesischen
Präsidenten Hu Jintao bereit, sollte es "konkrete Hinweise" für Gesprächsbereitschaft Pekings geben - nach dem Ende der Krise um Tibet "in ein paar Wochen, ein paar Monaten".
Chinas Regierungschef Wen Jiabao hatte sich am Dienstag ebenfalls gesprächsbereit gezeigt - allerdings nur, wenn der Dalai Lama seine Bemühungen um eine Unabhängigkeit des Tibet aufgebe. Das geistliche Oberhaupt der Tibeter hat immer wieder betont, ihm gehe es lediglich um mehr Autonomie. "Wir streben danach, die tibetische Kultur zu erhalten", sagte der Dalai Lama.
Erstmals machte China auch genauere Angaben über Demonstrationen außerhalb Tibets. Es habe seit Samstag in den Provinzen Sichuan und Gansu Unruhen gegeben, meldete die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Xinhua. Mit Steinen und Benzinbomben bewaffnete Aufständische hätten öffentliche Gebäude gestürmt. Nach Angaben von Menschenrechtsgruppen gab es mindestens acht Todesopfer.
Jochen Graebert, ARD Peking
[Tagesschau 20:00 Uhr, 20.03.2008]
Weltweit finden Demonstrationen gegen die chinesische Führung statt.
