Annex 2
CHRISTIAN WORSHIPPER IN CHINA BEATEN TO DEATH,
RIGHTS GROUP ALLEGES By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer, 4 November 2003, Associated
Press Newswires, (c) 2003. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
SHANGHAI, China (AP)—A worshipper in China's
unofficial Christian church has died from beatings in custody
after being detained by police for "illegally carrying out
religious activities," a human rights organization asserted
Tuesday.
Zhang Hongmei was detained by police in the
city of Pingdu in Shandong province on 30 October, the Information
Center for Human Rights and Democracy re ported. Zhang's family
members rejected police demands that they pay a 3,000 yuan (US$365)
fine for her release and were later told she died around noon
on Thursday, the Hong Kong-based center said.
It wasn't clear why Zhang was targeted. A Pingdu
government spokesman, reached by telephone, said he was unaware
of the incident. A man who answered the phone at a number listed
for Pingdu's Jiudian police station said it was a wrong number
and hung up.
News of Zhang's death came hours after a separate
report from another human rights group that said a church activist
and historian was sentenced to two years in a labor camp on subversion
charges related to writings in his diary.
Together, the reports point to sustained government
repression of unofficial worship in China, where only state-sponsored
religion is permitted.
The center said Zhang, 33, was a decade-long
member of the unofficial church, which worships separately from
China's tightly government-controlled official Protestant church
movement. Members of the unofficial church are subject to frequent
harassment and arrest by authorities.
While the official Protestant church claims
10 million followers, up to five times that number are believed
to worship in unofficial Protestant congregations, often called
"house churches" because they often meet in private
homes to evade authorities.
On the evening of Zhang's arrest, her husband,
Xu Haifeng and her brother, Zhang Hongyun, found her in the police
station tied to a bench, unable to speak and with bruises on her
legs, face and hands, the center said.
Officers refused their pleas to release her
and shouted insults at them, it said.
Zhang's death prompted a protest march Friday
by relatives and neighbors to Pingdu's city hall, where they were
halted by riot police, the center said. The crowd dispersed after
officials promised to investigate the incident, it said.
Zhang's body was sent to a local hospital for
an autopsy, the center said. Records showed severe bruising and
internal bleeding, it said.
In the second case, Zhang Yinan, arrested more
than a month ago while attending a friend's wedding, was driven
away from the Lushan County Detention Center in the central province
of Henan on Monday, according to Bob Fu, president of the China
Aid Association, based in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
Zhang is one of the most common Chinese surnames,
and Zhang Yinan and Zhang Hongmei were not related.
In sentencing Zhang, police cited passages in
his prayer journal that expressed hopes for the destruction of
Chinese government bodies, Fu said. Police said such passages
constituted "anti-Party, anti-socialist" writings, Fu
said.
Chinese law permits police to sentence people
to up to three years in labor camps without trials. While many
sentences are passed for minor crimes such as drug taking, prostitution
or petty theft, the labor camp system is also frequently used
to deal with critics of the communist regime or others accused
of political crimes.
Fu said Zhang has 60 days to appeal his sentence.
Police in Lushan county declined to respond
to questions about Zhang or said they had no information about
the case.
Another Christian activist arrested with Zhang
on Sept. 26 was released on Thursday and returned to his home
in Beijing. Xiao Biguang, 44, had helped coordinate the legal
defense for Gong Shengliang, the imprisoned leader of the unofficial
South China Church, and contacted foreign reporters about Gong's
case.
Several other activists in the unofficial church
have reportedly been detained over recent weeks.
More news could be found on http://www.hkhkhk.com/english/indexen.html
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