Item 9
Question of the violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms in any part of the world
Oral
statement by the Transnational Radical Party, a
non-governmental organisation in general consultative
status
Delivered by Wei Jingsheng
Geneva, 7 April 1999
Madam Chairperson,
I am Wei Jingsheng. In
1979 I was arrested and put in jail because I was
involved in the "Democracy Wall Movement"
of Beijing, and had advocated the "5th
modernization" for China - Democratization. I
was to spend a total of 18 years in prison.
I must first thank the
many country delegates and NGOs' great effort in
getting me release. Only through this relentless
effort from the international community I was able to
get out of jail alive in 1997. Today I am here to
speak to all of you representing my old friends of
the Transnational Radical Party.
A very small minority
of friends and I were able to leave prison, but we
did not regain our freedom. We were forced by the
Chinese government into exile abroad, and are not
allowed back in China. This shows clearly that the
Chinese government does not respect human rights.
Furthermore, today the jails in China are full of
political prisoners. They are not only deprived of
their most fundamental political rights, but their
personal rights are also being violated. As of most
recently I have received many detailed reports of how
political prisons are suffering from harsh punishment
and torture.
These days there is a
strange belief outside of China. It holds that since
the Chinese government signed the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it is a sign
that the policy of dialogue has succeeded, as though
the human rights situation in China has thus
improved. At the same time, the Chinese government
has begun a new and massive wave of arrest. Mr Fang
Jue, Mr Wang Youcai, Mr Wang Di, Mr Xu Wenli, Mr
Zhang Shan and tens of other pro-democracy and human
rights activists and labor activists have all been
detained in prison and have received extremely harsh
sentence. In addition, over 2 thousand publishers of
non-official publishing houses have been arrested.
Encouraged by all the
outside praises of how successful the human rights
dialogue has been, the Chinese government has even
inaugurated a central agency last year which ranks
even higher than the other organs of repression,
aiming to "nip in the bud" all political
organizations which are outside the Communist Party.
Madam Chairperson,
respected delegates: We do not oppose the United
Nations and the many countries' effort of effective
dialogue with the Chinese government on the question
of human rights. But we are against secret dialogue,
we are especially against giving up pressure in favor
of dialogue.
For example, after the
Tiananmen Massacre in June 4th, 1989, all the
countries in the world have carried out sanctions
against China. Under pressure and without dialogued
at the time, the Chinese government sentenced the
student leaders Wang Dan and Wang Youcai to 3, 4
years of prison. But in recent years when other
countries are favoring dialogue to pressure, Wang Dan
was arrested for writing articles not even political
in nature, and Wang Youcai was arrested for making
preparations to register a political party; both of
them received harsh sentencing of 11 years. This
difference clearly shows that Dialogue without
pressure will not get concrete results.
Madam Chairperson, we
demand that the Chinese government comply with the
international conventions it has signed, and also
with its own laws.
According to Chinese
law, the charge of "counter-revolutionary"
has already been eliminated. The Chinese government
should therefore release all the political prisoners
who have been sentenced convicted of that charge.
Since it has signed
the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, China should release all the dissidents and
non-official publishers arrested recently. Only then
will China prove it indeed respects its own law as
well as the United Nations conventions, only then
does it prove itself to be a sincere correspondent of
the human rights dialogue.
Thank you, Madam
Chairperson.
