Further information on UA: 201/12 Index: ASA 17/029/2012 China        Date: 21 August 2012


URGENT ACTION
TAIWANESE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER RELEASED
Chung Ting-Pang, a Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioner who was detained in China on 18 June, was released on 10 August. The following day he was escorted to Nanchang airport where he boarded a plane to Taiwan. He has been reunited with his wife and children in Taiwan.
Chung Ting-Pang had travelled to China on 15 June to meet with his relatives who live in Nankang, Jiangxi province. He was detained at the airport in Ganzhou, also in Jiangxi province, on 18 June as he was about to return to Taiwan.
Chung Ting-Pang was held at a guesthouse under the guard of the Ganzhou National Security Bureau for 54 days. He was repeatedly interrogated but he says that he was not physically tortured or ill-treated. However, his interrogators threatened him by saying to him that if he did not cooperate, another investigation team would take over from them and that they could not protect him if that happened. During the first day of his detention, he refused to eat or drink. He began to eat after he was allowed to call home. The authorities told him what he should and should not say when speaking with his family. On 11 July he was taken to meet with a lawyer, and on 26 July he was asked to call home again, and tell his family that he was being treated well and that his family should not “make too much noise”.  
The national security authorities held him due to his attempt to intercept the signal of a Chinese TV station, deemed detrimental to China’s national and public security and for his other activities to distribute information about the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China. He was released without being charged but only after he signed a statement in which he confessed to having posed a threat to China’s national security and said that he regrets having done so.
Chung Ting-Pang admits that since 2003, he has attempted to use many methods to distribute materials about Falun Gong which is banned in China. However, he says that he never posed a threat to China’s national security and that he had to make up some details during the interrogations and only signed the statement because of the psychological pressure brought upon him by his being isolated, the threats to his security, and not knowing what would happen to him.
Many thanks to those who sent appeals. No further action is required from the UA network.

This is the first update UA 201/12. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/022/2012/en

Name: Chung Ting-Pang
Gender m/f: Male

Further information on UA: 201/12 Index: ASA 17/029/2012 Issue Date: 21 August 2012





Individuals Campaign Team








Corinna-Barbara
East Asia Team
International Secretariat, Amnesty International
Direct Line: 44 (0) 20-7413-5662
Fax: 44 (0) 20-7956-1157
Email: cfrancis@amnesty.org
----- Forwarded by Corinna-Barbara Francis/I.S./Amnesty International on 22/08/2012 16:17 -----

From:        Uateam/I.S./Amnesty International
To:        $UA-List/I.S./Amnesty International, $UA-Trans, ua-asia, Corinna-Barbara Francis/I.S./Amnesty International@Intsec
Date:        22/08/2012 14:53
Subject:        FU UA 208/12 ASA 17/031/2012 - Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured
Sent by:        Victoria Lane

---

Individuals Campaign Team

Email:   uateam@amnesty.org / individuals@amnesty.org
Web:    http://www.amnesty.org/en/individuals-at-risk
Hotline: via switchboard (cannot be dialled from outside the building) (+44) 20 7413 5500 extension 5051


The next bit of news from China is not so happy:

URGENT ACTION

falun gong practitioners  tortured

Falun Gong practitioners Wang Xiuqing and her daughter Qin Hailong have been tortured in Harbin’s Qianjin Re-education through Labour (RTL) camp, Shandong province, China. They have been detained without trial at the camp since January.

Information from former inmates has revealed that Wang Xiuqing and her daughter, Qin Hailong, have been tortured during their detention in the Qianjin RTL camp. On arrival at the camp the two were held incommunicado for more than one month. On 18 August, Qin Hailong’s older sister, Qin Rongqian, visited the RTL camp to see them. She first visited Wang Xiuqing , who told her that Qin Hailong had been tortured and ill-treated after Qin Rongqian’s last visit to the camp on 3 August, and that this had continued until 17 August. The torture included being beaten with electric batons, being punched and kicked all over her body, and thrown to ground so hard she was unable to breath. She named two officials actively involved in the torture as Huo Shuping and Wu Baoyun, the head and deputy head of the camp’s Number Two Brigade, one of two brigades into which all inmates are divided. Wang Xiuqing said that Qin Hailong was tortured because she refused to sign a document recognizing her “guilt”, asking for “help” in her “re-education”, and promising to reject her beliefs. Her mother had earlier signed the document because she “couldn’t stand it any more”, referring to her torture.

The RTL camp officials initially refused to allow Qin Rongqian to meet Qin Hailong after she had met with her mother despite her having the right to do so under RTL regulations. Qin Rongqian persisted in her demand to see her sister, saying she would not leave until she had done so, and eventually was allowed the visit. Qin Rongqian reports that Qin Hailong had scabs resulting from the electric shocks, was unable to stand up straight, walked with difficulty, held her waist with her arm, and had a look of pain on her face.

Qin Hailong and Wang Xiuqing were assigned to 18 months RTL last November after the family’s extensive efforts to seek legal redress for the death of Qin Hailong’s father and Wang Xiuqing’s husband, Qin Yueming, in Jiamusi Prison in February 2011, despite warnings from authorities to stop their legal efforts. Qin Yueming was imprisoned for his religious beliefs, and is believed to have been tortured to death. His family state they found his body covered with extensive bruises with blood coming from his nose. The prison authorities reported the cause of death as a heart attack. A petition movement in support of the family gathered over 15,000 signatures.

Please write immediately in Chinese or your own language:

n                    Call on the authorities to immediately release Qin Hailong and Wang Xiuqing as they have been detained solely on the basis of exercising their rights to freedom of expression

n                    Urge them to ensure that Qin Hailong and Wang Xiuqing are not tortured or ill-treated while in detention

n                    Urge them to immediately provide any medical assistance that Qin Hailong may require.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 3 OCTOBER 2012 TO:

Minister of Justice

WU Aiying Buzhang

Sifabu, 10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie

Chaoyangqu, Beijingshi 100020

People's Republic of China

Fax: +86 10 65292345

Email: pfmaster@legalinfo.gov.cn

Salutation: Dear Minister

Secretary of Political and Legal Committee of Heilongjiang Province

DU Jiahao Shuji

Qianshanlu 99-1

Nangangqu, Harbinshi 150090

People's Republic of China

Salutation: Dear Secretary

And copies to:

Director of Qianjin Re-education Through Labour Camp

WANG Yaluo Suozhang

Daoliqu

Xinnongzhen

Harbinshi 150078

People's Republic of China

Salutation: Dear Director

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:

Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation   

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 208/12. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/024/2012/en

URGENT ACTION

faluN gong practitioners tortured

ADditional Information

Falun Gong is a spiritual movement which gained large numbers of supporters in China during the 1990s. After it staged a peaceful gathering in Tiananmen Square in July 1999, the government outlawed the group and launched a long-term campaign

of persecution. Individuals are imprisoned for their religious beliefs and for exercising their rights to freedom of expression by  distributing materials about the group. They are sentenced to long prison terms, held in psychiatric hospitals, re-education through labour (RTL) facilities (a form of administrative detention imposed without charge, trial or judicial review), and held in specialized detention centres whose mission is to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners via coercion into renouncing their spiritual beliefs, often through the use of torture and ill-treatment. Torture and other ill-treatment are routine in all forms of detention, despite China’s ratification of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1988. Amnesty International has documented numerous deaths in custody, believed to have been caused by torture and other ill-treatment, and torture and ill-treatment of practitioners leading to permanent disability.

Name: Wang Xiuqing (f), Qin Hailong (f), Qin Rongqian (f) Qin Yueming (m)

Gender m/f: Both

Further information on UA: 208/12 Index: ASA 17/031/2012 Issue Date: 22 August 2012

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied as we all know.  Thirty years is certainly far too long to wait for justice.

Survivors and relatives of victims of the 22 August 1982 El Calabozo massacre. From left to right; Felicita, Emma, Adriana, Jesús, Edelmira. El Salvador,  April 2012. © Amnesty International

30 years ago on 22 August 1982, by the banks of the river at El Calabozo in northern El Salvador, over 200 unarmed people were murdered in cold blood by Salvadoran soldiers.   Please join the call for justice.