Sir, - It was interesting to read the comments of the mayor of Beijing (The Irish Times, February 20th), when Mr Liu Qi appealed to the International Olympic Committee on behalf of his city and its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. "China is firmly opposed to any attempts to foil Beijing's bid on the excuse of human rights," the mayor is reported to have said, according to the Xinhua newsagency.
China is determined not to allow complete religious freedom to its citizens, to maintain the use of the death penalty for a wide range of offences, to torture and imprison people for a variety of reasons, whether it is spiritual practice, or having an extra child, or trying to express political views at variance with those of the government.
If I might quote from a recent Amnesty International news release: "Each year many people are tortured to death in China. Torture is widespread and systemic, committed in the full range of state institutions, from police stations to `re-education through labour' camps, as well as in people's homes, workplaces and in public. Victims of torture can be anyone from criminal suspects, political dissidents, workers and innocent bystanders to officials."
China has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. The continuing use of torture against its citizens is against that convention and the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
Among the victims of torture are Zhou Jiangxiang, who was tortured to death in a gruesome fashion after he refused to reveal the whereabouts of his wife, whom the authorities suspected of being pregnant for a second time, against the rules of the one-child policy.
Zhao Ming, a Trinity College postgraduate student, is illegally detained without trial in a labour camp in Beijing because he chooses to be a practitioner of Falun Gong. He has reportedly been tortured. Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested for trying to practice their peaceful spiritual belief. Many of those have been tortured and more than 100 have died.
Ngawang Sangdrol, a Buddist nun, is serving a sentence of 21 years in prison for shouting slogans and singing songs calling for the independence of Tibet, a country brutally suppressed by China for decades. She is just one of many who have suffered imprisonment or torture or both, for the same reason.
China's appalling record on human rights cannot be ignored, either by the Chinese authorities or the rest of the world. - Yours, etc.,
Terry Butler, Church Road, East Wall, Dublin 3.