Old ladies' get sent to Chinese re-education camp.

[FrodeMk3]

For protesting at the Olympics, 2 elderly chinese ladies' got sentenced to a year at a "re-ecucation" camp.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080820/ap_on_re_as/oly_china_protests

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago
 


BEIJING - Two elderly Chinese women who applied during the Olympic Games to protest the loss of their homes have been ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday, as more foreign activists were detained.

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The women were still at home three days after being officially notified they would have to serve a yearlong term of reeducation through labor, but were under surveillance by a neighborhood watch group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women.

A rights group said the threat of prison appeared to be an intimidation tactic.

Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77.

"Wang Xiuying is almost blind and crippled. What sort of reeducation through labor can she serve?" Li said in a telephone interview. "But they can also be taken away at any time."

The order followed the pair's repeated attempts to apply for permission to hold a protest at one of three areas designated by the government as available for demonstrations during the games, which end Sunday.

Beijing has used the existence of the protest areas as a way to defend its promise to improve human rights in China that was crucial to its bid to win the games.

Some 77 applications were lodged to hold protests, none went ahead. Rights groups say the zones were just a way for the Chinese government to put on an appearance of complying with international standards. A handful who sought a permit to demonstrate was taken away by security officials, rights groups said.

"China is riding roughshod over its promises to allow lawful protests during the games," said Nicholas Bequelin of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The cases of Wu and Wang "show that while China has now proven it is able to host international events to perfection, it still has a long way to go before it respects even minimal international human rights standards," he said.

Giselle Davies, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said past Olympic hosts have designated protest areas and that the body hoped Beijing would stick to its promise of allowing demonstrations.

The reeducation system, in place since 1957, allows police to sidestep the need for a criminal trial or a formal charge and directly send people to prison for up to four years to perform penal labor.

Critics say it is misused to detain political or religious activists, and violates suspects' rights.

The Public Security Bureau had no immediate comment. A spokeswoman for the Beijing reeducation through labor bureau said, "We have no records of these two names in our system."

Meanwhile, an activist group said five American bloggers have been detained since early Tuesday in Beijing. The bloggers, who did not have media credentials, were protesting China's policies in Tibet, said Kate Woznow, campaigns director for the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet.

They were the latest of more than a dozen foreign activists who have been detained in Beijing this month for launching similar protests. Most have been quickly deported.

Also Tuesday, five Americans who unfurled a "Free Tibet" banner near an Olympics venue were detained along with U.S. graffiti artist James Powderly, who planned to use laser beams to flash a similar message on buildings in Beijing, said Woznow. The banner protesters have been released but Powderly was still detained, she said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang declined to discuss the specifics of the protest policy at a regular news conference Wednesday. "In China, like in other countries, to apply for a demonstration, you have to obey the law," he said.

Protests have become common in China, where simmering resentment over layoffs, corruption, land confiscation and other issues explode into sometimes violent action. The communist leadership remains wary about large demonstrations, fearing they could snowball into anti-government movements.

The sensitivity is more marked during the Olympics, which is meant to showcase China to the world.

Wu and Wang, diminutive, gray-haired women, seem like unlikely activists.

Wang, who used to sell ice-cream, hobbles along with a wooden cane, one hand holding onto Wu for support. But Li said they have been fighting for their cause since being kicked out of their Beijing homes in 2001 to make way for redevelopment. A year later, their electricity at a temporary home was cut because they refused to sign papers allowing the developer to provide them with a second home.

They complained to district officials, then to city authorities, and finally demonstrated 16 times this year in two of Beijing's most sensitive areas — Tiananmen Square and Zhongnanhai, the compound where China's leaders live and work.

"Defending the rights of the people is still such a difficult thing even 60 years after the establishment of the republic," Li said.

Now why did we have the Olympics' there again? For Wal-Mart???

[Maverick]

Perhaps you might want to address that sillly question to the IOC since wallyworld has nothing to do with internal politics of the Chinese or the Olympics.
 

[FrodeMk3]

Perhaps you might want to address that sillly question to the IOC since wallyworld has nothing to do with internal politics of the Chinese or the Olympics.
 

(Measures, takes hook from mouth, throws' back into the water)

Lol, I know Maverick. If the U.S., or any other country had felt really strongly about Human rights' violations, they simply should have boycotted the Olympics. The U.S. won't, because of our trade status with China these days. There are too many American corporations' doing business with them now, For the U.S. Gov't. to do something as potentially insulting as boycott an Olympic event.

[Mickey1992]

If the U.S., or any other country had felt really strongly about Human rights' violations, they simply should have boycotted the Olympics.

I think the US learned from Carter's mistake in 1979.  I don't see us boycotting any Olympic games any time soon.

[Maverick]

Using a boycott in the Olympics serves no purpose. The purpose of the Olympics is supposed to be apolitical athletic competition. Boycotting it causes no hurt to the country you are offended over. It just keeps your athletes from competing and possibly beating the other guys athletes.