Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China ...

<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 20102010, Gao finally re-appeared, giving phone interviews to several reporters, and then onApril 7, Gao appeared for an in-person interview with the Associated Press, dispellingearlier fears that he was dead. 151 Gao refused to divulge details of his treatment during hisyear-long disappearance, but based on past experiences, there is good reason to believeGao was mistreated and possibly tortured. Gao has previously been kidnapped, arbitrarilydetained, and tortured on at least three previous occasions. 152As the experience of Gao Zhisheng demonstrates, Chinese police remain willing tobrazenly violate both the law and common standards of decency to intimidate or silencehuman rights defenders.b. Attacks in retribution for rights-defense activitiesWhile it was fairly common for human rights defenders to be roughly handled duringapprehensions by police, and officials frequently used force in order to dispersedemonstrations and group protests, it was less common for the authorities to violentlyattack human rights defenders in the open, relying instead on other forms of harassmentand intimidation.However, cases of open violence against human rights defenders were documented byCHRD this past year. Human rights lawyers defending politically sensitive cases weretargeted in some of the most egregious attacks against human rights defenders in 2009(also see p.23).Lawyers were not the only targets of violence in 2009. One particularly serious incidentinvolved dissident Professor Sun Wenguang ( ), who was attacked and beaten forthe peaceful act of memorializing Zhao Ziyang. Sun was severely beaten on April 5 by agroup of unidentified men on his way to the local cemetery to commemorate the life ofZhao Ziyang, the late reformist CCP Secretary General known for his sympathy withdemonstrators during the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. April 5 was QingmingFestival, a traditional Chinese holiday to remember and honor the dead. A passerby whowitnessed the beating called an ambulance and Sun was taken to Qilu Hospital in JinanCity, where he was diagnosed with three broken ribs and injuries to his spine, head, back,arms and legs. Sun believes that police following him witnessed the beating and yet didnothing to stop his attackers. 153广 文 孙In the cases above, as in numerous instances of forced evictions or other cases in whichofficials (and others working under their direction or with their knowledge) physicallyassaulted citizens, the government failed to hold the attackers legally accountable. Thethreat of violence, therefore, remains real for all human rights defenders as they go abouttheir daily business. For those taken into police custody, however, the threat is far moreserious.c. Torture and violence in detention41