China accused of running illegal prisons
China accused of running illegal prisons
Thursday, 12, Nov 2009 11:26
By Richard James.
China has been accused of running a series of illegal prisons where citizens are detained for months on end in secret.
A new report by Human Rights Watch claims the detention centres are housed within state-owned hotels, nursing homes and psychiatric care units and usually hold those who have petitioned in some form against the government.
The US-based rights group said the 'black jails' were filled with people who had travelled from around the country to report local injustices.
"The existence of black jails in the heart of Beijing makes a mockery of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving human rights and respecting the rule of law," said Sophie Richardson, the group's Asia advocacy director.
"The government should move swiftly to close these facilities, investigate those running them and provide assistance to those abused in them."
Human Rights Watch said it had based its study on research carried out in a number of Chinese cities during April and May, including the testimonies of dozens of people who alleged they had been held in the illegal jails.
Ms Richardson has said there could be as many as 50 black jails in the Beijing area alone.
The report, entitled "An Alleyway in Hell" claims government officials and security forces routinely abduct people off the street, strip them of their possessions and imprison them illegally.
The human rights group suggests the jails have emerged since the Chinese government abolished laws permitting the arbitrary detention of non-residents and vagrants.
While the decision was initially welcomed to curb the police's powers of arbitrary detention, black jails now serve as 'extralegal' detention centres for "undesirables" in cities, the report states.
"China has laws that set out how arrests and detentions should take place, but the government is blatantly ignoring those in the cases of black jails and those detained in them," Ms Richardson added.
"A failure to live up to its own legal standards - let alone international standards - is not the hallmark of a government aspiring to global respect."
Chinese officials have continued to deny the existence of such prisons despite numerous reports in the national and international media.
Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters: "I can assure you that there are no so-called 'black jails' in China.
"The Chinese government follows the principle of listening to the people."