BBC Monitoring: China: Complaint lodged in France against Vice-Premier Li Lanqing

12/10/2002

Source: RTBF Radio 1, Brussels, in French 1800 gmt 10 Dec 02/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC

Text of report by Belgian RTBF radio on 10 December

A complaint has been lodged in France by Belgian and French nationals in the name of universal competence against Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing during a visit [of Li Lanqing to France]. [French news agency AFP reported at 1738 gmt that the complaint was lodged on 4 December in the southern city of Nice while Li Lanqing was in the city and then referred to Paris, according to French lawyer William Bourdon and Belgian lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier.]

The plaintiffs accuse this senior Chinese politician of being the organiser of the Chinese crackdown on Falun Gong members, [...]. Georges-Henri Beauthier, a Belgian lawyer specialising in human rights law, has held a press conference in Paris. He spoke to [name of reporter indistinct]:

[Beauthier] We lodged a complaint in France - the complaint has been transferred to Paris - to see to what extent it was necessary to arrest this person and to see above all in the future if the French judicial authorities, when a Chinese representative enters the country, won't begin to question him, to take him in for questioning, perhaps to arrest him, to take him to court. What interests us is for leaders from all over the world who have committed acts of torture to henceforth be accountable in Belgium, in France, in Germany and to be tried by the courts, whether they be Belgian, French or German. And we want this to apply not just to African dictators but also to members of governments, such as that of China.

[Reporter] It's a way of putting the issue of universal competence back on the agenda.

[Beauthier] On the European agenda. It's not just Belgium, it's not just France. There will be other countries.

[Reporter] Is it for symbolic reasons that you have chosen 10 December, the international human rights day, to announce this complaint?

[Beauthier] It's obviously not a coincidence. There is currently a regression, it has to be said, of everything related to what are called human rights. We now need to take charge again and make sure that people know that this anniversary is not just something superficial but that there are complaints, that there are actions which should be carried out, in particular to prevent thousands of Chinese people from being, I recall, deported, confined illegally, tortured.