AAP by Natasha Wallace,SYDNEY
A Chinese asylum seeker today said her husband had been “taken hostage” by
Beijing police after she filed a lawsuit against China for human rights
abuses.
Speaking from Melbourne, where she lives with fellow Falun Gong
practitioners, Jennifer Zheng Zeng, 36, said she feared for the safety of
her husband Cao Jianwei, whose whereabouts were unknown.
“I seriously believe that his arrest is related to my legal action against
(Chinese President) Jiang Zemin because (my husband) is not a Falun Gong
practitioner and I can’t imagine any other reason for his arrest except to
keep him as a hostage to threaten me,” Mrs Zeng said. The spiritual movement
Falun Gong is banned in China.
On October 21, Mrs Zeng was one of seven plaintiffs from six countries who
filed a lawsuit with the United Nations committees on torture and human
rights, timed to coincide with Jiang’s visit to the US.
Another lawsuit was filed against Jiang by Falun Gong supporters in the US
Federal courts during his visit.
Mrs Zeng’s nine-year-old daughter had been staying with elderly grandparents
after police raided the couple’s home on October 25, taking computers and
arresting Mr Cao, 40.
The couple’s friends in Beijing had been unable to locate Mr Cao, a former
manager of a Beijing University education investment company. Mrs Zeng heard
of her husband’s arrest through her parents-in-law.
“The police didn’t tell them where he was taken to or on what ground he was
arrested,” she said.
“We have no information about where he was detained and why he was taken
away.”
The couple came to Australia on a business trip in September last year.
Mrs Zeng’s husband returned while she stayed behind, seeking refugee status
because she feared she would be imprisoned for being a Falun Gong member if
she went back to China.
In June, 2000, she was sentenced without trial to one year in a forced
labour camp, where she said she was subjected to shock treatment and worked
21 hours a day making toy rabbits for Nestle.
Nestle earlier this year said it did not use forced labour to produce its
toys.
Mrs Zeng, who holds a bridging visa, said Australian immigration authorities
refused her request to fast-track her application so that she could
eventually bring her daughter to Australia.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock was not immediately available for
comment.
Mrs Zeng said the Chinese Embassy in Canberra told her it had no information
on her husband’s whereabouts.
A spokesman Mr Ruddock later warned Mrs Zeng risked being sent home if she
insisted her application for refugee status be fast-tracked.
“They can fast-track it by saying no. If she wants a quick answer, the
quickest answer is no,” he said.
“We didn’t bring her to Australia, so she made that choice.
He suggested she contact the department with any new information about her
case.
“Fast-tracking a decision might not be of benefit because the fast-track
decision might be a no,” he said.
Posting date: 2/Nov/2002
Original article date: 1/Nov/2002
Category: Media Reports
