By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – On March 5, 2012 the National People’s Congress approved a measure to boost spending on domestic security by 11.5 percent bringing the total budget to 111.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that the increase in spending would be used to pursue modernization and expansion of the Chinese law enforcement agencies including the People’s Armed Police which is responsible for controlling domestic riots.

The approval of increased spending has caused some to fear that the “stability maintenance” measures undertaken this year ahead of leadership transition could become a permanent program.

In his annual address, Wen stated that the most important task for the Chinese military “…is to win local wars under information-age conditions.”

The statement was likely prompted by the Chinese government’s recent experiences with domestic unrest, including a string of twenty-five self-immolations that have occurred in the past year.

In addition, approximately one-hundred petitioners were detained earlier this week after traveling to Beijing to express their grievances with Chinese authorities.

Those detained were taken to unofficial detention centers known as “black jails” where detainees are often held until they can be taken back to their home town by local officials.

Other activists complained that after attempting to deliver petitioning letters to the National People’s Congress building, they were taken by police and told that such activity was illegal.

In addition to concerns about the affect of increased domestic security spending on dissidents, some have expressed frustration that the money is not being used to provide other services.

The new budget for domestic security, for the second consecutive year, exceeds the 106.4 billion dollar budget implemented for national defense.

This statistic prompted Liu Kaiming, head of the Local Social observation Research Institute, to state that the “…cost of maintaining public security is greater than the defense of the country…this shows that our society is actually very unstable, if so much has to be spent on maintaining stability.”

Liu continued to also express his belief that the Chinese government is not expending a sufficient amount of its resources on social security, health insurance or education.

In 2010 the number of unrest recorded by the Chinese government was approximately 90,000 illustrating a growth from the 8,700 incidents recorded in 1993.

Although data about the number of protests in China has not been released since 2010, an economist and senior adviser to the State Council, Niu Wenyuan, stated that there is an average of 500 protests each day equating to 180,000 per year.

Some have expressed that the exceedingly high number of protests facing China should be seen as an illustration of structural flaws present in the Chinese government.

 

For more information, please see:

Vancouver Sun – China Fears Unrest at Home More Than Foreign War – 7 March 2012

Merco Press – China Boosts Domestic Security Budget to Face Growing Unrest – 6 March 2012

Radio Free Asia – China Boosts Domestic Security Forces – 6 March 2012

Reuters – China Domestic Security Spending Rises to $111 Billion – 5 March 2012

By Greg Donaldson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 

YANGON, Myanmar – During President Thein Sein’s inauguration speech, the new president promised “sweeping democratic reform, and vowed to respect the role of the media.” One year later all signs indicate that President Sein is keeping his promise. Last month an article was published in the Yangon weekly Health Journal which described the poor living conditions prisoners faced in local jails.

The article explained that prison authorities attempted to cure an outbreak of scabies by having prisoners take their clothes off as prison employees wiped the naked inmates with medicine-laden brooms. Not only did the article raise alarming ethical questions about the treatment of prisoners but also displayed the poverty of both the nation’s prisons and healthcare system.

Zaw Thet, who wrote the article, was a political prisoner until last January. He explained “in the past it would’ve been a very dangerous thing to publish… it wasn’t allowed.” In the past journalists had been threatened, jailed, blacklisted, and beaten for writing articles the government did not want published.

While the government continues to censor reporting about “sensitive subjects” such as politics, censorship has ended on many subjects. Journalists are free to write on topics such as health, entertainment, fashion, and sports. Many reporters are interested in testing the recently gained limited freedom to find out what other topics the government will allow them to write about.

Thiha Saw, chief editor of a news weekly called Open News, said he’s now able to write freely about fires, murders, and natural disaster. He explained at various times in the past each had been prohibited.

Media groups who have been exiled in the past are interested at the prospect of returning to Myanmar. However, these groups hesitant to ensure that the current regime will not change its views on censorship in the future.

Aung Zaw, founder of the Irrawaddy news website based in Thailand, escaped Myanmar in 1988 after a popular uprising was “brutally crushed” by the previous government. After making his first trip back to Myanmar Zaw explained “it is our dream to publish a publication or online magazine inside Burma.”

The government has further promised to end censorship altogether once the parliament passes a new media law later this year. The legislation, which is currently being drafted, would allow Myanmar’s independent press to publish daily for the first time in decades.

For more information, please see:

Taipei Times – Myanmar’s Exiled Media Lured Back Home by Reform – 28 February 2012

Washington Post – Myanmar Eases Restrictions on media, Vows Full End to Censorship as Reporters Test New Limits – 28 February 2012

by Hibberd Kline
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A 32 year old mother, an 18 year old boy and a middle school student each died after setting themselves on fire in protest of Chinese rule in Tibet over the past three days.

The three protesters lit themselves on fire in separate incidents in two different provinces in China’s restive Northwestern region.

The first of the weekend’s immolations took place on Saturday, when a student set herself on fire at a vegetable market in Gansu province’s Maqu county. The girl died at the scene.

Radio Free Asia reported the girl to be “in middle school.” London-based group, Free Tibet, later identified her as 20 year old Tsering Kyi.

Free Tibet quoted the student as saying before she died that Tibetans were burning themselves in Aba, a town in Sichuan province as well as in other areas under a widespread security clampdown by the Chinese authorities.

According to Tibetan exiles, unidentified market-goers threw stones at the girl’s burning body.

On Sunday, in an apparently uncoordinated second incident a 32 year old woman by the name of Rinchen lit herself on fire in front of a police station in Aba prefecture in Sichuan province. The act was especially symbolic to Tibetans because, like many police stations in heavily Tibetan populated areas in China, the station was by the main gate to a Buddhist monastery.  China is rapidly expanding its security presence in Tibet and neighboring Xinjiang  and it has become a common practice for the government to build police stations inside or next to Buddhist monasteries in order to maintain closer control over Tibetan religious leaders.

The particular monastery that Rinchen chose is known as the Kirti Monastery and is significant because it has been central to a recent string of protests and more than twenty self-immolations undertaken by Tibetans in protest of Chinese rule. Rinchen reportedly quoted a Tibetan monk, who is currently exiled in India, calling for the return of the Dali Lama and freedom for Tibet.

According to Free Tibet, Rinchen was the mother of four children.

The third self-immolation was carried out by an 18 year old boy identified by Free Tibet as Dorjee, who set fire to himself in the town of Chara in Sichuan province on Monday.

According to a Tibetan in exile in India, Dorjee set himself on fire and then marched from a nearby bridge to a government building, where he collapsed and died.

Local authorities refused to comment on any of the three incidents.

Tibet has been ruled by China since 1950, when Chinese troops occupied the region. The Chinese Government claims that the self-immolations have been carried out by “terrorists.”

The back-to-back immolations took place on the eve of the annual opening of the Chinese Parliament. This year’s parliamentary session is expected to effect the transfer of power to a younger generation of leaders within the Chinese communist party. The planned transfer has put much of the government in a heightened state of alert and has led to a sizable increase in China’s security presence in its restive northwestern region.

In addition to the enhanced security ahead of this year’s Parliamentary session, security is traditionally bolstered in Tibetan-populated areas in March, which marks the anniversaries of the 1959 uprising, which sparked the flight of the Dali Lama, and the anti-government protests that took place in the regional capital of Lhasa in 2008.

Human rights activists claim that China’s attempts to tighten its grip on the region merely exacerbates the problem by alienating the indigenous Tibetan populous.

Last Thursday, the regional government ordered authorities inside Tibet to increase control over mobile phones and the internet, both of which are already monitored in the region and have reportedly even been blocked completely in some areas.

Foreign journalists are largely banned from entering the region. Therefore the recent increase in censorship makes events in the region even more difficult to independently confirm.

Human rights activists and Tibetan exiles claim that the Chinese Government oppresses Tibetans and that it is deliberately undermining Tibetan religion and culture. The Chinese Government rejects this, claiming that China has improved the Tibetan economy and improved the lives of people in a “backward” region.

For more information, please see:

BBC News —  Tibetan Women ‘Die after Self-Immolation’ — 05 March 2012

The Guardian — Tibetan Women Set Themselves on Fire, Say Reports — 05 March 2012

The New York Times — Three Tibetans Die after Self-Immolations — 05 March 2012

Radio Free Asia — Third Self-Immolation in Three Days —  05 March 2o12

Voice of America — Reports: Tibetan Teenager Sets Himself on Fire — 05 March 2012

The Washington Post — Reports Say Teenage Tibetan in Sichuan Sets Self on Fire and Dies; Third Immolation in Three Days — 05 March 2012

AP News — Tibetan Woman, Student Set Selves on Fire — 04 March 2012

The Guardian — Tibetan Woman Dies after Setting Herself on Fire in Protest at Chinese Rule — 04 March 2o12

by Hibberd Kline
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Regional authorities have increased the death toll from Tuesday’s violence near the city of Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang region to 20 up from an initial figure of 12 reported by China’s official Xinhau News Agency.

According to the regional government, the “attack” was instigated by knife-wielding “terrorists” who attacked passers-by on a busy shopping street. The authorities attribute 13 deaths to the alleged terrorist attack. State news agency Xinhua previously described the incident as a “riot.”

The official government report also increased the number of alleged terrorist assailants shot dead by police officers from the earlier reported 2 to 7.

According to Xinhua, the authorities are in pursuit of an unspecified number of additional suspects thought to have taken part in the alleged terrorist attacks.

Details are still not forthcoming about what may have set off the violence. However, the region has a long history of ethnic tension between the native, muslim, ethnic Uighur population and Han Chinese migrants. That history has often been punctuated by oubursts of violence, which are often portrayed officially as terrorist attacks.

Uighur activists groups claim that China oppresses their culture and religion and say that instances of violence, which the Chinese government claims to be the work of “mobs” or “terrorists” are actually anti-government riots or peaceful protests turned violent.

Foreign media access to the region is restricted. Therefore, China’s official accounts of violence in Xinjiang are generally difficult to independently confirm and are often the subject of dispute by human rights organizations. Following the attack, Chinese censors were quick to block internet searches including the name of either the county “Yecheng” or the town “Kashgar” in which the attack took place.

The Chinese Government is currently expanding its security footprint inside Xinjiang. Last month, authorities in Xinjiang announced plans to recruit 8,000 additional security officers to help maintain control in the region.

China sees Xinjiang with its vast oil, natural gas and mineral deposits as strategically vital to Chinese economic expansion. The Chinese Government has adopted a policy of intensive economic investment in the region coupled with a stifling security presence in order to reduce the potential for open unrest.

Following the attack in Xinjiang, a Chinese woman was shot to death in Peshawar, Pakistan. An element of the Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for the woman’s death. According to a Taliban spokesman, the killing was carried out as “revenge for the Chinese Government killing… [the Taliban’s] Muslim brothers” in Xinjiang.

China and Pakistan have long been close allies and recently staged joint anti-terrorism drills. The Chinese Government responded to the killing by demanding that Pakistan investigate the incident and take steps to protect Chinese nationals inside Pakistan. Pakistan’s ambassador to China has promised that Pakistan will hunt down the attackers.

China often asserts that alleged terrorist activity in Xinjiang, Tibet and other restive regions within China are encouraged and supported by foreigners.

For more information, please see:

Reuters — Pakistani Militants Say Chinese Woman Killed for Revenge — 01 March 2012

BBC News — China Violence: ’20 Dead’ in Kashgar City in Xinjiang — 29 February 2012

AP News — China Says at Least 12 Killed in Xinjiang Riot — 28 February 2012

The Telegraph — ‘Violent Mob’ Riots Leave 12 Dead — 29 February 2012

BBC News — China Violence: 12 Dead in Kashgar City in Xinjiang — 28 February 2012

The Guardian — China Unrest Kills at Least 12 — 28 February 2012

By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A Chinese court has sentenced an activist to eighteen months in a labor camp after he gave journalists information that led them to a “black jail” which is an unofficial detention facility kept by the Chinese government.

Zhao Zhenjia was recently sentenced after being detained by Beijing police on January 22.

Chinese authorities claim that Zhao was indicted for fraud based on alleged dealings with rural machinery workers.

According to Chinese activists, those who try to make against the local government are often detained in black jails where they are beaten and harassed by government authorities.

A former black jail detainee expressed their experience when they stated, “[the guards] entered without a word, grabbed me…kneed me in the chest and pounded my lower belly with their fists until I passed out. After it was over I was in pain, but they didn’t leave a mark on my body.”

Another former detainee stated that, “[t]here was no medical treatment [in the black jail]. I’m not very healthy and combined with the disgusting conditions inside [the facility], I was sick every day, but they wouldn’t give me medical treatment and wouldn’t let me go to see a doctor. [A guard] said, ‘You don’t want to die here because your life [to us] isn’t worth one cent. [If] I want you dead, you can die [here] as easily as an ant.’”

A 2009 Human Rights Watch report alleged that Chinese officials regularly take citizens and keep them in unlawful detention facilities maintained in state-owned hotels, nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals.

According to the report local officials create black jails to allow activists to be detained and punished in a way that will not cause these officials to be reprimanded under rules that impose penalties when a large portion of prisoners flow from their areas.

Those hired to guard the prison often subject prisoners to physical violence, theft, extortion, threats and deprivation of food, sleep and medical care.

Minors have not been spared black jail detention in China. Human Rights Watch interviewed a fifteen year old girl who reported that after being abducted and taken to the jail, she was detained for two months and subjected to severe beatings.

Black jails appeared following the government’s abolishment of laws allowing arbitrary detention of non-residents and according to Human Rights Watch the operators of black jails receive payment from the local governments for each person kept in the black jail.

Despite the recent change of government, few expect to see changes in the treatment of activists due to  the need of the new government to assert power and stability over the nation.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Asia – Labor Camp for Petitioning Activist –  29 February 2012

Reuters – China “Black Jails” Prompt Fears of Wider Security Crackdown – 10 November 2011

Human Rights Watch – China: Secret “Black Jails” hide Severe Rights Abuses – 12 November 2009