August 20, 2002

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson (l) raised concerns on her visit to Beijing about what she called China's "worrying" human rights picture

BEIJING, China -- The U.N.'s top official for human rights has criticized China for using the September 11 terror attacks to crack down on dissent.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson raised the concerns on a visit to Beijing about what she called China's "worrying" human rights picture. Issues of concern include the death penalty, arbitrary detentions and a number of individual cases.

China has passed laws over the last year increasing arrest and detention powers and also widening the use of the death penalty, Robinson said, according to The Associated Press news agency.

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Members of the Falun Gong and Uighur minorities in Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim area of northwest China, are considered by Robinson to be specific targets of these new laws.

"For the Uighur population and also for Falun Gong members, this has meant that the climate is harsher and tougher," Robinson said.

China has invited U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo Van Boven, to visit next year, but has not yet accepted U.N. requests to allow Van Boven to visit prisons of his choice or to speak privately with prisoners.

"I would say that it (the visit) is not guaranteed yet," Robinson said in her seventh and final visit to China before leaving her U.N. post next month.

Freedom of expression

She also raised the issue of the detention of labor activists and a clampdown on freedom of expression in a meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya.

"It's all the more necessary that China embraces the kind of political reform and opening up of society which will also be better for human rights and prepare China to ratify the covenant on civil and political rights," Reuters news agency reported Robinson as saying on Monday.

As part of her Beijing visit, Robinson will meet with Cambodia's King Norodom Sianouk -- in the country for medical treatment -- before flying to Phnom Penh to discuss legal reform, human trafficking as well as economic and social rights with Prime Minister Hun Sen.

After Cambodia, Robinson will travel to East Timor to attend the first public hearing of the Reception Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/20/china.un/index.html