list on the whereabouts of dozens of political prisoners and reports said it also released one of
three jailed prominent house church leaders.
The released Christian was identified as Zhang Shengqi, who was detained in November 2003 and sentenced to one year in prison last August on charges of "leaking state secrets". Two other leaders, Liu Fenggang and Xu Yonghai, are still in prison, said the Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM) Canada, a Christian human rights group.
The three leaders were arrested after posting Internet reports on the destruction of several
unregistered churches in Hangzhou. They were also accused of leaking information about a
2000 court case to an overseas magazine, "Christian Life Quarterly," said VOM Canada, which has closely monitored the case.
Analysts believe China’s leaders made the latest moves in a bid to mute criticism of its rights record ahead of an annual meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission which runs from March 14 to April 22.
The Dui Hua Foundation, a human rights advocacy group, said China’s Justice Ministry sent it a list of 56 people who are still imprisoned "on charges ranging from espionage and endangering state security to engaging in separatist activities."
CHARGES AND NAMES
It reportedly contains details such as names, charges, ethnicity and places of detention of the prisoners, who range from Tibetan nuns to people accused of spying for Taiwan. Nicholas Becquelin of the Human Rights in China group told the Voice of America (VOA) network that the timing of the release of information on the prisoners was no coincidence.
"The Chinese government goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid being criticized at the commission, which is the highest human rights body internationally," he said. "Not only do they make a lot of effort to prevent being the object of a resolution expressing concern about the human rights situation in China at the commission, but they want to preclude the possibility that any member state of the commission tables [presents] a resolution, even if the resolution is not adopted."
In addition the European Union has linked the lifting of a weapons embargo against the Asian nation to the improvement of human and religious rights in China. However Christian human rights groups have cautioned for to much optimism saying many Christians are still behind bars. On Thursday, February 10, a 34-year woman of an underground house church in China was to recount her experience of torture, sexual abuse and arbitrary imprisonment by Chinese police at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
"CHRISTMAS LIGHTS"
The China Aid Association (CAA), which investigates the plight of persecuted Christians and organized Thursday’s event, said Liu Xianzhi belonged to the rapidly growing South China Church and escaped from China last month after serving six years in a labor camp "making Christmas lights and rugs."
In 2001, police allegedly arrested Liu and tortured her into falsely testifying that the pastor
of the South China Church, Gong Shengliang, "raped" her. "When I hear dogs barking,
loud knocking on the door, the sound of police sirens, or I see men who are not wearing shirts
(like my interrogators), I have an overwhelming sense of fear," she was quoted as saying in a
statement released ahead of the Washington meeting.
Liu is one of 8903 members of the South China Church who police have arrested for their religious beliefs, including Pastor Gong, who is serving a life sentence in prison based on multiple confessions obtained through torture, CAA claimed.
HISTORIAN SENTENCED
CAA President Bob Fu, a former prisoner of religious conscience, was also to announce a formal opinion by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the detention of Mr. Yinan Zhang. The "leading historian" was arrested September 26, 2003 and sentenced to two years of re-education through labor on charges of "attempting to subvert the national government" , CAA said.
It added that the Communist authorities have been "misinterpreting statements" taken from his personal prayer journals and Christian essays.
China says it has religious freedom, but that it will crack down on what it considers to be "dangerous sects." There are an estimated up to 80 million Christians in China, who Christian human rights watchdog Open Doors described as "the world’s largest single persecuted community today."
(By: Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, BosNewsLife with BosNewsLife News Center, reports from in and outside China).
