The UN says China has postponed a long-awaited inspection visit by its special
rapporteur on torture which was due to have taken place in late June.
Beijing
says that it needs more time to prepare and that this should be read as a sign
of just how much importance it attaches to the visit.
The move has been
criticised by a human rights group which says it raises questions about Beijing’s
sincerity.
The rapporteur, Theo van Boven, has said he regrets the postponement.
The trip has been under discussion for almost a decade and Mr van Boven
was finally due to make his first tour of China at the end of June.
"The
need for additional time to prepare for the two-week visit, especially given the
different authorities, departments and provinces involved, was cited by the government
as a season for the postponement," Mr van Boven said in a statement.
Nicholas
Becquelin, of Human Rights in China, told BBC News Online the postponement "does
nothing to dispel the impression that China has something to hide".
In
Mr van Boven’s annual report, released in March, the section on China was the
longest, with more than 130 cases of reported torture and abuse.
Mr Becquelin
said the Chinese authorities’ treatment of their citizens raised three main areas
of concern:
- The alleged use of torture to extract confessions from
those in pre-trial detention. - The alleged torture of members of groups
which Beijing considers a threat to national security or to its hold on organised
religion. These include practitioners of Falun Gong, ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang,
members of underground churches - Extra-judicial detention, for example
the use of "re-education through labour", which Chinese citizens can
be sentenced to for up to four years without trial
The rapporteur has said
he will only visit China if he can make unannounced visits to places of detention
and have unsupervised interviews with prisoners.
"This is a
risk the government is apparently not ready to handle," said Mr Becquelin.
Earlier attempts to organise a visit by the UN torture rapporteur have
been hindered by disagreements with Beijing over the terms of reference.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3814311.stm
Posting
date: 19/June/2004
Original article date: 18/June/2004
Category: Media Report
