Amnesty International Contacts Plaintiffs in Genocide Trial; Will Help Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice

On May 28, Amnesty International (AI) held a news conference in Washington, DC to publicize its 2003 Human Rights Report. This year's annual report recorded the human rights situation in 151 countries in 2002. AI Executive Director, Mr. William Schultz reported in his statement to the media the current situation of countries with bad human rights records. China was included in the list again for its long period of suppression of dissidents. He especially condemned China for its threat to execute patients who violate the quarantine regulation during the attempt to prevent and control SARS.

AI Executive Director, William Schultz	Mr. T. Kumar, Director of AI, Asia Pacific Affairs

Mr. T. Kumar, Director of Amnesty International, Asia Pacific Affairs, said that AI recently learned about the lawsuit charging Jiang Zemin with genocide that was filed in Chicago. They have contacted the plaintiffs and will work with them to prosecute Jiang.

The 911 terrorist attack shocked the world. Since then, many countries have spent billions of dollars to prevent this kind of incident from occurring again. However, in some autocratic countries, many people are suffering from brutal persecution for exercising such basic rights as freedom of expression and belief, and they are dying silently. Amnesty International has been making efforts to track down these kinds of incidents.

Amnesty International is a worldwide organization of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. It has more than 1.5 million members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries and territories in every region of the world, who are determined to work for a world where everyone enjoys human rights. AI is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of human rights. AI's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.

In 2002, AI dispatched delegations to dozens of countries and regions, met victims who suffered human rights violations, audited trials, and met and communicated with local human rights activists and governmental officials.

The human rights record of the former leader of China, Jiang Zemin, has been broadly criticized in the international community, and he has been singled out as a "human rights scoundrel" by Amnesty International for several years in a row.

When he was asked about how criticized countries respond, Mr. Kumar said, "Most countries, especially China, use the excuse of 'interfering with domestic affairs' to hinder us, but we have means to work efficiently through some international organizations to expose these human rights violations." He also expressed, "Compared to 2002, China's human rights record has not shown real improvement, but has even tended to become worse."