By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
BEIJING, China – A group of lawyers advising the families of children sickened in China’s tainted milk case facing growing official pressure to withdraw from the cases. The group already has helped the parents of a 1-year-old boy who developed kidney stones after drinking tainted milk to file a lawsuit against the dairy company, Sanlu Group Co. The court in Henan province has not yet decides whether it will hear the suit.
The tainted milk scandal caused at least four babies have died and more than 54,000 children have been sickened in China. The Chinese government acknowledged the dairy industry was “chaotic” and had suffered from a grave lack of oversight, while pledging to monitor milk products from farm to dinner table. However, the government has also imposed controls on media coverage of the crisis, and pressured families and lawyers to withdraw from cases related to the scandal. Officials from the provincial government’s justice department in Henan province told at least 14 lawyers by officials to stop their activities, said Chang Boyang, one of the lawyers. “They called me and my boss at my law firm and put pressure on me, and they said that this has become a political issue and that I ought to follow the arrangements set out by the government.” Chang said. “If this suggestion is disobeyed, the lawyer and the firm will be dealt with,” Chang quoted the official.
Organizers of the campaign and some of the lawyers confirmed officials in some provinces have pressured volunteers or their bosses to give up the campaign. “About two dozen of the lawyers have called these past days to say they want to quit the volunteer advice group,” said Li Fangping, a Beijing lawyer who helped organize the group. “Some of them said that they or their offices were told they’d face serious repercussions if they stayed involved, ” Li Fangping added.
According to a Beijing-based lawyer, Li Jinglin, the Beijing Lawyers’ Association called a meeting with several of its serving officer members and the justice department to discuss the milk powder cases. “At that meeting, those in charge said they had received a very clear message from the Hebei provincial lawyers’ association that we should not involve ourselves in Sanlu-related cases,” said Li Jinglin.
“There has been a direct instruction to all Chinese lawyers that they are forbidden from offering legal assistance to families of children who have drunk contaminated milk,” a lawyer who declined to be named said. “The orders came from the legal affairs bureau in our district. Executive forces are putting pressure on them from all directions. Really, their hands are tied,” he said.
For more information, please see:
AP – Chinese lawyers face pressure to drop milk cases – 07 October 2008
AP – Second lawsuit filed in tainted milk scandal – 10 October 2008
Radio Free Asia – Lawyers’ Outrage at Milk Case Ban – 07 October 2008
Reuters – China milk victim lawyers say pressed to quit – 29 September 2008
