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, 2010Calls for reforms of detention centers in China increased in 2009 following the highlypublicizedcase of Li Qiaoming ( ), a prisoner in a Yunnan Province detentioncenter whose death police originally attributed to a game of hide-and-seek known as“eluding the cat.” 154 While the death of Sun Zhigang ( ) in 2003 helped lead to theabolition of the Custody and Repatriation system, it is unclear to what degree Li’s death,and other widely-discussed cases from this past year, will serve as catalysts for changewithin China’s deeply-troubled detention facilities.刚 志 孫 明 荞 李Human rights defenders detained in the past year were frequently affected by the cultureof violence prevalent in Chinese detention facilities. CHRD documented cases of humanrights defenders tortured by police to extract confessions, beaten by other inmates and“prison bullies” with the consent of guards, and otherwise mistreated in retaliation fortheir work defending others’ rights. Recounting the abuses he witnessed in two and a halfyears of detention between 2007 and 2009, imprisoned journalist Qi Chonghuai wrote“the kinds of maltreatment of prisoners I experienced first-hand and witnessed made myheart shiver.” 155Qi’s letters, written between August 2008 and December 2009 inside ShandongProvince’s Tengzhou Prison, describe in harrowing detail the torture and abuse he faced.Qi wrote that he was first tortured while in pre-trial detention in 2007. Police beat him on“nearly every” one of the 408 days he spent at the Tengzhou City Detention Center, andduring one interrogation session, they bound Qi to a chair and beat him until he lostconsciousness. On the day he arrived at Tengzhou Prison in August 2008, he was beatenby fellow inmates and suffered a broken rib. After learning that Qi had been documentingthe conditions inside of Tengzhou Prison, a prison guard named Liu Huanyong (instructed an inmate, Zhai Fengqiang ( to “do away” with Qi. Qi writes, 翟 劉I was ruthlessly beaten at the bottom of a 130-meter deep mine. My entire facewas mangled and bloody, and I lost consciousness. I don’t know how long I wasdown there. Two fellow inmates found me and dragged me out of the mine,narrowly saving my life. If not for them, I would still be at the bottom of thatmine.” 156), 強 鳳) 永 煥As of May 2010, Qi remains incarcerated in Tengzhou Prison. Those responsible fortorturing him have not been held accountable.One year has passed since the Committee against Torture issued its most recent report onChina’s compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman orDegrading Treatment or Punishment, which China ratified over twenty years ago. 157Tragically, cases like Qi’s illustrate the failure of the government to act on the Committeeagainst Torture’s recommendations and to take its responsibility to end torture indetention facilities seriously. While the government issued legislative proposals andstrongly-worded statements regarding the abolition of torture in 2009, the practiceremains as prevalent as in previous years. The health and safety of human rightsdefenders and all others taken into custody in China are frequently and seriouslythreatened.42