U.N. official says torture widespread in Chinese prisons

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Dec 5, 2005

BEIJING, Dec. 2 Kyodo

A top U.N. human rights official said Friday that a variety of torture pervades Chinese prisons and police stations because of pressure to extract confessions and structural problems in the criminal justice system.

Although torture is declining in major cities as seen from a reduction in complaints to the United Nations and more awareness among urban police, it remains ''widespread'' in forms that include burnings with cigarettes, submersion in water, reeducation and in one case 85 days of sleep deprivation, said Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur for torture.

Nowak made the remarks at a press conference based on what he described as a relatively short, obstacle-choked two-week China trip that included meetings with 30 prisoners.

He visited two prisons in Beijing followed by visits to holding facilities in Lhasa and Urumqi, which are home to ethnic Tibetan and Uygur prisoners, respectively, suspected of crimes linked to separatism.

During the trip, he met with state security, public security, court and prosecutorial leaders as well as human rights lawyers, scholars at four major Beijing universities and families of torture victims.

Nowak's office in Geneva originally applied back in 1995 for the China trip based on about 200 torture allegations in China per year. He did not meet everyone he wanted to see.

''Although he cannot make a detailed determination as to the current scale of these abuses, the special rapporteur believes that the practice of torture, though on the decline -- particularly in urban areas -- remains widespread in China,'' the United Nations said in a statement.

China in 1988 signed the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Chinese law also bans torture and calls for punishment of those who use it. Public security organs have stepped up monitoring to catch acts of torture in prison.

Criminal justice officials in Beijing, the Tibetan capital Lhasa and Urumqi, a city in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, explained to Nowak their opposition to torture and specific measures being taken to stop it, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a press briefing Thursday.

''China values opening communication and cooperation with U.N. human rights institutions according to mutual respect and principles of equality,'' Qin said. ''I think this time for the Chinese side to invite (Nowak) to visit China embodies the Chinese side's attitude and good faith. The Chinese side believes his visit helps raise understanding on both sides.''

Police officers with little criminal evidence torture suspects to get confessions admissible in court, Nowak said. ''It is aimed at breaking the will of the individual concerned,'' he said.

Nowak said he was particularly concerned about acts that he considers torture but do not meet China's definitions, particularly treatment that leaves no physical traces. One such practice is 24-hour handcuffs and shackles for death-row inmates, he said, and another is so-called reeducation through labor.

He also slammed some public and state security officers for trying to obstruct or restrict efforts to get information or block victim family members from seeing him.

Nowak's prison visits were not technically unannounced as they were supposed to be, the U.N. statement said, because prisons usually found out an hour in advance.

In prisons, Nowak said, he was asked to leave his camera outside the interview rooms, which made it harder to gather evidence. Nowak said other prisons in other countries allow him to use cameras.

''There were several incidents of obstructing my mission by the ministries of state or public security,'' Nowak said. ''In other words, there were frequent incidents of surveillance.''

Nowak, who came at the Chinese Foreign Ministry's invitation, was told he would get unfettered access to prisons and torture victims during his visit.

Prisoner interviews did not always go well, Nowak said, because some inmates distrusted him, feared retaliation or had been taught to forget things in reeducation.

To stop torture in China, Nowak recommends 18 reforms that include giving defense lawyers more client access, scrapping evidence gained through torture and establishing an independent judiciary. He also recommended abolishing types of crimes that give security officers broad power to detain suspects.

Nowak said Chinese officials recognize the torture issue and may allow him another visit.