Undeserved Arrests, Detention and Death Punishment
- Children abducted from East Turkistan forced into theft
- "Assessment of Uyghur Street Children in Inland China", Phoenix Weekly
Capital Punishment and Organ Removal bookmark
According to the research of Amnesty International, the number of China's death sentences in 2004 is more than 6,000, in 2005 is more than 3,900 and in 2006 is more than 2,790. The number of execution in 2004 is more than 3,000, in 2005 is more than 1,770 and in 2006 is more than 1,010. Yet it is assumed that the number of people executed is reducing every year, China has the world-beating number of executions.
As the national statistics of the execution is a national secret in China, it is difficult to figure out the accurate number and it is considered the the actual number of execution is outpacing the number of Amnesty International's research. County representative of National People's Congress has testified that there are more than 10,000 executions carried out.
Because most of the defendants are not able to stand the fair trial and they are executed over a short period after getting the death sentence, it is nearly impossible to make a final appeal. There are other problems such as not being able to see the lawyer on the request and confess made by being tortured is treated as proper evidence. In a normal country, 'presumption of innocence' is the fundamental principle, but in China, they adopt the 'presumption of guilty', that allows crime suspect to be punished. The death penalty can be applied to 68 different crimes not only including the drug crime and violent crime but also tax evasion, abstraction, corruption, mediation of prostitution and sometimes even stealing a bicycle can be led to death sentence.
Many executions are carried out by shooting death and the cost of the bullets are to be paid by the family of the condemned. In these days,the number of executions by lethal injections are increasing as to show that 'China is paying respects to all the human'. But China is the biggest supplier of replacement organs and it is concerned that execution by lethal injection makes collecting the organs from condemned easier. Some Provinces have mobile execution unit that allows the execution carried out in a car so that the body of the condemned can be sent to the hospitals while it is fresh. Under normal conditions, execution by gundown aims at the back of the head, but it is reported that when the organs are needed, they follow the general method, but when they need cornea, they shoot in the heart.
One recent example of organ removal from the condemned was reported by Guardian. According to it, a cosmetic company in China used skin of the executed to extract collagen and used it for the cosmetics that they export. There is a testimony that 90% of the organs for transplant in China are removed from the executed. For the organ transplants, consent from the condemned and his/her family is necessary, but it is said, those procedures are omitted or ignored and the organs are removed. The body of executed are to be cremated right after the execution so the deceased family are not able to check whether the organs are removed.
Nazi Germany made carpet using the hair of the Jews that they slaughtered and used the ash of the cremated bodies as fertilizer but contemporary China is capitalizing the human body effectively and getting a profit.
Reform through Labour (Laogai) bookmark
Chinese moderate priced export goods are mainly produced in prisons or concentration camp (normally called Laogai, literally meaning Reform through Labour). According to the Laogai Research Foundation established by Harry Wu, who was imprisoned in Laogai for 19 years, there are more than 1,000 concentration camp and 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 prisoners in China now. However as the numbers concerning the Laogai are top secrets and furthermore, the camps are closed down or relocated without any notice, it is impossible to disclose the whole detail.
Prisoners are forced to work in the farm, factories and offices within the property of the camp with little payments. They are under the awful condition; beaten, abused, lacking nutrition, and threatened by the infestation of tuberculosis and hepatitis. This prison system that took advantage of the mass forced labour contributed a lot for the Chinese Communist Party's establishment of socialism. There is no other country apart from China that uses the prison system to gain a mass profit with large scale.
Each prison and Laogai use business enterprise names on the product on exportation, so the people in developed countries support China's barbarism without knowing. Positively Chinese exports to Japan contain the products produced in Laogai.
The system of administrative detention called 'Reeducation through labour' allows China to detain people without having a judicial trial is another problem. With this system, police and authorities can detain people up to 3-4 years with their verdicts. Report of Amnesty International in 2003 states that approximately 310,000 people were detained administratively in the Laogai in early 2001 and 'Strike Hard' campaign probably helps increasing the number.
Things happening in East Turkistan bookmark
In East Turkistan, torture, arbitrary detention and inequitable political trial have been carried out. Authorities are using the terrorism issue to justify the suppression together with 'Strike Hard' campaign.
Comparing with other regions, there are a number of political criminals arrested as 'separationists' and 'terrorists' . They are detained in the long term and quite a number of them have been executed. There are a few thousands of political criminals including 'Prisoner of conscience' currently.
Tohti Tunyaz, ex-graduate student of university in Japan and also a 'Prisoner of conscience', was doing research on history and culture of ethnic minorities to make proposals to formulate the ethnic policy back in China. He came to Japan in 1990 and he wrote a thesis called 'Study on Uyghur History and Culture' during his 3 years stay. He came back to Japan in 1995 and started his doctorate research in Uyghur history at Tokyo University. He got arrested in February 1998 on the trip home for the research purpose. He was found guilty of 'inciting national disunity' and 'stealing state secrets' and sentenced 11 years in prison and he is still serving now. What made him guilty of 'stealing state secrets' was photocopying catalogs of historical materials in autonomous region's document library. With this fact, written judgement was made.
ref.)Tohti, the student detained unjustly
Rabiya Kadeer, the winner of Rafto Prize and nominee of Nobel Peace Prize, was one of the wealthiest person before she got arrested. She contributed a lot for the female rights by establishing a company to support females to be independent. She was detained in August 1999 after 'suspected of having connection with national separatist activities' and was to be imprisoned for 8 years. However the international attention gathered on her made Chinese Communist Party afraid of being accused of abusing human rights and they suddenly released her on March 2005. She moved to the United States after that and became the President of World Uyghur Congress and acting as a representative of the nationalist movement. China arrested her children as countermeasure and they are serving in prison.
Husein Dzhelil, a Canadian citizen, was detained as a member of organization for independence movement. He broke out of prison, exile himself and got the Canadian citizenship in 2005. He got caught in March 2006, during his travel in Uzbekistan and he was turned over to China. Currently he is imprisoned in Urumqi. China is invading his rights as a Canadian by prohibiting Canadian diplomats to sit in the trial and prohibiting Husein Dzhelil to see his Canadian lawyer.
According to Laogai Research Foundation's report, there are 46 prisons and 9 Laogai confirmed. The detained are manufacturing industrial products, farming and spinning and those products are exported using commercial names that would not link to the prison or Laogai.