July 27, 2005
A former police officer in China's Public Security Bureau gave evidence in secret to a Senate committee yesterday on the torture of accused dissidents.
The man, codenamed "Z", is one of three Chinese officials to defect in Australia this year.
He said he had learned of detainees being beaten to death and decided to defect because of his opposition to such abuse.
His testimony to the committee was given behind closed doors at a hearing in Sydney. However, a statement from him detailing the alleged torture was included in a written submission.
Bernard Collaery, a lawyer, appeared at the Senate inquiry with Z and another former policeman who has defected, Hao Fengjun.
Mr Collaery said Mr Hao had masses of documents and "electronic" data on a multi-billion-dollar operation to spy on Chinese nationals around the world, including Australia.
He said this included a huge network of paid informants operated by the security organisation known as the 610 office.
"I used to work in the 610 office and I did not see in person Falun Gong practitioners' deaths. But I saw arrested Falun Gong members and dissidents being interrogated by torture." Mr Hao told the committee through an interpreter. "Basically it was physical punishment using an iron bar to beat them or hanging them from a door or elsewhere in handcuffs for a long time."
Mr Collaery said that so far Australian intelligence agencies had failed to take proper advantage of the intelligence material available from the two defectors.
In the written submission, he accused the Government of "silence" over the Chinese regime's ruthless repression of its citizens and suggested trade interests were a reason for this.
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