AP Media Report: Mary Robinson said she repeated concerns about reports of torture against Falun Gong followers

November 9, 2001
Dow Jones Newswires

BEIJING (AP)—[..]

Wrapping up a two-day visit to China, Robinson also said she urged Chinese
officials to invite the U.N. inspector for torture to visit. [..]

Robinson's visit also highlighted U.N. efforts to get China to confront allegations of the routine use of torture by police.

In 1999, China invited the current U.N. torture inspector, Nigel Rodley, to visit. But the trip never took place because Beijing refused to let him tour prisons and police stations unannounced and to meet privately with prisoners. Both are standard conditions for a visit by the expert.

Rodley, a former director of Amnesty International, is to resign his post as special rapporteur on torture on Nov. 12. A visit appears impossible before then.

Human rights groups say Chinese law enforcement officers routinely use torture to extract confessions from prisoners and criminal suspects.

The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement says its followers have been singled out for torture in China's 2 1/2-year crackdown on the group. Falun Gong says more than 300 of its members have died from abuse in custody.

Robinson said she repeated concerns about reports of torture against Falun Gong followers but was not told of any investigation into the allegations. She also urged officials to clearly define torture according to a U.N. anti-torture covenant that China has ratified.

[..]

Robinson said she also asked about two jailed Chinese journalists and Zhao Ming, a detained Falun Gong follower who studied at her alma mater, Dublin University.