Celebrated UK Human Rights lawyer, author and playwright, Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC, has joined forces with high profile Australian lawyer, author and filmmaker, Mr Chris Nyst, and a group of Australian university students, to compile a 500 page complaint to the Human Rights Commission detailing instances of shocking abuse by Chinese prison guards and government officials perpetrated on an Australian citizen.
A 36 page statement included in the complaint of Cui Ying Zhang tells how on four separate occasions in 1999 and 2000 Chinese authorities:-
- arrested her without lawful grounds;
- administratively detained her without lawful grounds;
- held her incommunicado for prolonged periods;
- denied her any opportunity to test the legality of her detention;
- subjected her to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment in order to suppress her freedoms of expression, religion and belief.
On the last occasion Ms Zhang claims that for a period of eight months between March and November of 2000, she was held in several Chinese prisons after she refused to renounce her beliefs in Falun Gong, the physical and spiritual practice for which she alleges she was imprisoned. In her statement she details how she was repeatedly beaten during lengthy interrogations, was shackled, kicked and punched, stripped naked and was deprived of sleep, food and water for periods of up to four days.
In one Chinese detention centre she was held in the male section of the prison along with 12 other female prisoners in a cell with a glass window in the door.
"Every time a male prisoner or guard walked past (every ten minutes or so) they could see straight into my cell. Both the shower and the toilet were in full view of this window. I remained in this cell in fear of the male prisoners and guards for about a month", Ms Zhang said.
"The male prisoners were encouraged by the guards to watch us shower and go to the toilet. Some male prisoners would masturbate while they watched us".
Despite the horrific conditions within which she was forced to live, Ms Zhang continued to practice her Falun Gong exercises.
"Whenever a guard caught me practising my exercises they would push me to the ground and kick me with their boots all over my body. They would curse me, pull my hair, splash water on me and use hard objects to hit me. My body was bruised for the entire eight months of my detention. Although I was exhausted, I felt too much pain to fall asleep at night."
In a further effort to stop Ms Zhang practising her exercises whilst incarcerated she alleges that the guards shackled and handcuffed her to the bars on the cell window.
For the last three months of her detention Ms Zhang was forced to labour for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. She tells of how she was subjected to repeated beatings by prison guards and lived in constant fear for her life.
According to Falun Gong practitioners, Ms Zhang is only one of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been imprisoned by Chinese authorities without charge since the movement was renounced [...] by the Chinese government in 1999. At the end of the year 2003, Amnesty International released a report that claimed, according to overseas sources, the death toll of those detained in connection with their practice of Falun Gong has now risen to over 700 people, mostly as a result of torture and ill-treatment.
Speaking from Geneva today, Mr Nyst said that the world community could no longer accept China's flagrant disregard of an individual's basic human rights.
"In many ways, China is the new frontier for the western business world and a land of great opportunity", Mr Nyst said.
"In my own country of Australia, our government is involved in negotiations for major export deals with China, and large scale private commercial interests within Australia are vying for major contracts including pay television rights in China. These matters should not be permitted to override Australia's, or any other civilised countries' commitment to preventing human rights violations".
Mr Nyst applauded the involvement of the young Australian law students who helped research and compile the complaint. The fledgling group are part of a new Australian University project, founded by Mr Nyst, in an effort to heighten youth awareness of international human rights violations.
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