By KUNA
London : Amnesty International Tuesday called on the Chinese authorities to immediately end repressive measures against Chinese human rights defenders in Beijing and other parts of China, as well as against protesters in Tibet and surrounding regions.
This came as Amnesty International released its report entitled “China: The Olympics countdown of crackdown on activists threatens Olympics legacy.” “The crackdown on activists has deepened not lessened because of the Olympics,” said Miss Irene Khan, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, in a press release here.
In and around Beijing, the Chinese authorities have silenced and imprisoned peaceful human rights activists in the pre-Olympics “clean up.” In Tibet and the surrounding areas, the police and military crackdown on demonstrators has led to serious human rights violations in recent days, the human rights group said.
“These actions cast doubt on whether the Chinese authorities are really serious about their commitment to improve human rights in the run up to the Olympics,” Khan said.
“The Olympic Games have so far failed to act as a catalyst for reform. Unless urgent steps are taken to redress the situation, a positive human rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics looks increasingly beyond reach,” she added.
Amnesty is calling on the Chinese authorities to give immediate access to Tibet and surrounding areas to UN investigators and other independent observers, cease arbitrary detention, intimidation and harassment of activists, end punitive administrative detention, allow full and free reporting across the whole of China for all journalists and free all prisoners of conscience.
In view of long-documented patterns of torture and other ill-treatment in Tibet, Amnesty said it fears that Tibetan detainees are likely to face beatings or other abuses. Some risk being sentenced to death after unfair trials.
The organization called on the authorities to disclose the names, whereabouts and legal status of all those detained, and to release anyone detained solely for peaceful protest.
The near total media black-out on Tibet and the surrounding areas has not only made it difficult to confirm reports but is a betrayal of official promises to ensure “complete media freedom” in the run-up to the Olympics, it added.
Meanwhile, Amnestys report welcomed official assertions of a significant reduction in death sentences and executions last year as a result of the re-introduction of the Supreme Peoples Court review, but called again on the authorities to publish full national statistics on the death penalty to back up such claims.