evangelical Christians and urged United States President George W. Bush to address the issue during his talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, later this week.
The investigators of four organizations, China Aid Association, Institute of Religion and Public Policy, Jubilee Campaign USA and Midland Ministerial Alliance released a report Tuesday, April 18 with testimonies of allegedly tortured Christians, including photos evidence and video interviews of 19 believers from five different provinces.
The report highlights and summarizes some of "the most egregious cases of brutality and state-sponsored torture of Evangelical Christians during 2005 that have been documented by the [US-based] China Aid Association (CAA)," the groups said in a statement to BosNewsLife.
CHINA DENIES WRONGDOING
Chinese officials have strongly denied human rights abuses, saying Christians are free to worship within the state-sponsored churches.
But human rights groups claim most of the estimated 80-million Christians prefer to worship in so called ‘house churches’, named this way as they are often in homes of believers, who do not receive permission to gather in official buildings.
In the report investigators say China violates international laws condemning torture and its own anti-torture legislation which it adopted in 1996.
YOUNG WOMAN "ABUSED"
As an example the document cites 23 year-old "sister Zhao Yan" detailing the treatment she claims to have received from an interrogator after she was arrested for having a Bible study with two American seminary students at Zaoyang city in Hubei province on August 2, 2005.
"After a few words he slapped me in the face and kicked me to the ground. He ordered me to kneel on the ground and cuffed my two thumbs," she is quoted as saying. "He then let me raise my arms and keep them level. He again slapped me across the ears. He also hit me with a leather belt on my mouth. He took the drinking glass on the table and smashed it on my arms…He then kicked my cuffed hands," Zhao adds in the report.
She also claims that she "rolled around on the floor; the cuffs were eating into my flesh. When the cuff on my right thumb became loose he put it on my two forefingers. Again he wanted me to hold up my hands. Whenever I lower my arms he burned me with a cigarette butt."
OFFICIAL SUPPORTS TORTURE
An official of the Security Bureau, identified as Zhang Xujin, also allegedly entered the room and apparently "scolded" her and "severely kicked" the woman’s left leg. "He also severely kicked my two hands around on the muddy floor…Afterwards he wanted me to raise my hands up. He grabbed the cuffs and dragged me forward and up. My fingers simply wanted to break. I was continually tortured like this."
Zhao was "pressured" into signing "false documents" before she was released, the report says without elaborating. CAA President and former house church leader Bob Fu told BosNewsLife that the report only deals with "some cases" of the torture and abuse against members of the evangelical house church movement. "It only reflects the tip of the iceberg and is by no means an exhaustive report," cautioned Fu, the report’s primary author.
"It is meant to provide clear and concise details of what occurs on a regular basis within" China’s borders, he said. The report concludes that the Chinese government "demonstrates no regard for national nor international laws in their attempt to purge independent Christian faith from China." Investigators said the international community should hold officials involved in the torture and abuse accountable, at a time when the country prepares to host the International Olympic Games. (With BosNewsLife News Center, BosNewsLife Research and reports from China).
