Posted on 06/17/2004 10:44:55 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING, China (AP) - The United Nations investigator on torture said Thursday that China postponed his visit by several months, again thwarting a decade-long effort to pursue claims of abuse in the country's prisons. Theo van Boven had planned a two-week visit later this month to investigate reports of torture in Chinese jails, but China wanted more time to prepare, a statement on van Boven's Web site said.
"The need for additional time to prepare for the two-week visit, especially given the different authorities, departments, and provinces involved, was cited by the government as a reason for the postponement," the statement said.
Human rights groups say Chinese police and security services commonly use torture for punishment and to extract confessions and other information. China denies the charges.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said the postponement was due to "technical issues and because of problems with arranging the agenda," adding that many of the officials van Boven wanted to see would be on holiday.
"China has always adopted a positive attitude toward our cooperation with the U.N. human rights mechanism," Zhang said. "We still welcome him to China."
The United Nations has tried for almost a decade to arrange a visit by the torture inspector, but China's communist government has repeatedly refused to grant it permission.
Human rights groups say China was unwilling to accept the terms of a visit, which include allowing unlimited access to prisons without prior notice and confidential interviews with detainees and representatives of civic groups.
However, van Boven said China had accepted his conditions as part of its invitation issued in November.
Van Boven's statement said the aims of his visit remained to "assess first hand the situation in the country concerning torture, including institutional and legislative factors that contribute to such practices."
"While a visit to China has been long-awaited ... he is assured that the need for further preparation indicates the importance the government attaches to the visit," the statement added.
The New York-based group Human Rights in China said it was disappointed about the postponement. Beijing appeared to have made the invitation to deflect criticism of its human rights record, only to abandon it once international pressure had lessened, it said.
"This 11th-hour postponement raises serious questions about the sincerity of the (Chinese) government's commitment to international cooperation," the group said in a news release.
is anybody surprised at this perpetual delay?
Don't you know? It only matters if it's the US and if we are doing such terrible things as making dogs bark at prisoners! Everyone else in this world gets a free pass to do whatever they wish!
We start bombing in 5 minutes...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.