Fw: [shadow_group] Fw: ||SeattleActivist.org|| Fwd: China: School trips to watch death sentences - OCT-01-2004 - China

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To: shadow_group<mailto:shadow_group at lists.riseup.net> 
Subject: [shadow_group] Fw: ||SeattleActivist.org|| Fwd: China: School trips to watch death sentences - OCT-01-2004 - China



----- Original Message ----- 
Subject: ||SeattleActivist.org|| Fwd: China: School trips to watch death sentences - OCT-01-2004 - China
--- Amnesty International <ai-news at amnesty.org<mailto:ai-news at amnesty.org>> wrote:
> From: Amnesty International <ai-news at amnesty.org<mailto:ai-news at amnesty.org>>
> News Release Issued by the International Secretariat
> of Amnesty International
> 
> China: School trips to watch death sentences
> 
> AI Index: ASA 17/049/2004 (Public)
> 1 October 2004
> 
> In a bizarre holiday celebration several hundred
> schoolchildren were taken to watch six men being
> sentenced to death at a public sentencing rally,
> according to a Chinese internet report.
> 
> "The Chinese government regularly 'celebrates'
> national holidays by executing large numbers of
> criminals," said Ingrid Massage, Asia director at
> Amnesty International. "This year, the Mid-Autumn
> Festival falls in the same week as China's National
> Day on Friday 1 October and there has been a surge
> of executions."
> 
> The schoolchildren were part of an audience of 2,500
> people. Held in a gymnasium in Changsha, capital of
> central Hunan province, the sentencing rally was
> timed to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival on 27
> September. The six men were then taken to an
> execution ground and shot, according to the report
> on the 'Tom' web portal.
> 
> Pictured wearing their school uniforms, the children
> are described as elementary and middle school
> students, between the ages of six and seventeen.
> They heard the details of the convicts' crimes read
> out in public -- including murder, assault and
> kidnapping -- and then witnessed the criminals being
> sentenced to death.
> 
> Taking children out of school to attend sentencing
> rallies appears to contravene the Convention on the
> Rights of the Child, ratified by China in 1992. This
> states that education should be directed at the
> "development of respect for human rights and
> fundamental freedoms".
> 
> The six men in Hunan are among at least 100 people
> executed in recent days in China.
> 
> Both in law and practice, China's criminal justice
> system does not currently offer fair trials under
> international legal standards. This is particularly
> alarming in criminal cases where the death penalty
> is passed. Confessions may be extorted through
> torture, access to lawyers is limited and the appeal
> system is fractured and decentralised. Amnesty
> International opposes the death penalty in all
> circumstances and is calling on China to halt all
> executions immediately with a view to abolishing the
> death penalty in law.
> 
> To see the 'Tom' report (in Chinese), go to: 
>
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maacHX6abasT4bdzi2Fb/<http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maacHX6abasT4bdzi2Fb/>
> 
> Further information on human rights in China:
>
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maacHX6abasT5bdzi2Fb/<http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maacHX6abasT5bdzi2Fb/>
> 
>
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> Past and current Amnesty news services can be found
> at 
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