Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 17:32:49 +0800
From: "Francis T.L. Lau" <tllau-AT-hknet.com>
Subject: An Open Letter to the International Community


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Hong Kong Voice of Democracy
	http://www.democracy.org.hk
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We write this letter to draw your utmost attention to the recent
development in the human rights condition of China.

As the 10th anniversary of the Tianamen Massacre approaches, the Chinese
government has intensified its suppression of the dissident movement in
China. Many activists have been harassed, arrested, and even tortured. We
would like to single out a few cases for your attention: 
1) Four Beijing intellectuals, namely, Cao Jia-he, Gao Wei, Yu Zhen-bin,
and Lu
Guang-wen were arrested in mid-May by police; Cao, Gao, and Yu were beaten
by police while in remand. 
2) Yang Tao, one of the student leaders of the 1989 democracy movement, was
arrested by Guangzhou police on May 22, 1999. 
The sole reason for their arrest is that they were trying to prepare for
the 10th anniversary commemorative activities. We have to remind you that,
even according to People's Republic of China Constitution, these peaceful
activities of the activists are completely legal. In harassing and
arresting them, the Chinese government is trying to stop the Chinese people
from remembering a historic truth: there was a bloody crackdown on unarmed
civilians calling for democratic reform 10 years ago.

Late 1998 already saw the heavy sentencing of three core members of the
Chinese Democratic Party, Xu Wen-li, Qin Yong-min, and Wang You-cai. The
so-called 'The Spring of Beijing' had turned into 'The Winter of Beijing'.
With the arrest of activists such as Cao Jia-he, Gao Wei, Yu Zhen-bin, and
Yang Tao, the human rights condition of China has reached the lowest point
since 1989.

We believe the reason for such a deterioration is that the international
community has failed to pressure the China government for an improvement.
The motion of censuring China's human rights condition in the U.N. Human
Rights Commission annual session was halted before a debate among the
members could be held. The U.S. government and business sectors are
concentrating on the Sino-American business relations at the expense of
ignoring the appalling human rights condition of China. Even more
unfortunately, the recent NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy has provided
an excellent opportunity to the Chinese government to divert its people's
attention to external issues. It is the responsibility of the international
community to pressure the Chinese government at this critical moment for an
immediate end to these arrest and harassment, or else the human rights
condition of China will deteriorate to an even worse level.

We, therefore, urge you to take whatever means necessary to pressure the
Chinese government for : 
1) the release of all activists who are engaging in the peaceful activities
of commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre;
2) an end to the harassment of those participating in commemorative
activities;
3) the release of all political prisoners, especially those who are still
in prison because of their participation in the 1989 democracy movement.






************************************************************
Please add your name to the signature drive calling for the rehabilitation
of the June 4th Democracy Movement at http://www.june4.org
************************************************************
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Francis T.L. Lau          
	Email:  tllau-AT-hknet.com   
	Mobile: (852) 9424 1068   
	Fax:    (852) 2493 3953  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Hong Kong Voice Of Democracy
	http://www.democracy.org.hk/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~