Manu
04-11-2002, 02:46 PM
BEIJING, China -- China has cheered the U.N. silence on its human rights record at an annual rights meeting this week, saying the lack of a censure showed rising global recognition of Beijing's stand on rights.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue also lashed back at an Amnesty International statement that China executed more people than all other countries put together in 2001, calling accusations China abused the death penalty "baseless."
Unlike previous years, no country came forward with a resolution critical of China before a deadline passed for presenting motions at the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
"We have maintained that all countries should conduct human rights exchanges and dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect," Zhang told a regular news briefing.
"This time we have noted that this proposal has been recognized by more and more countries internationally and has become the mainstream."
China had been widely expected to avoid official criticism this year in the absence of the United States, which failed to win re-election to the 53-nation Commission in an upset vote in New York late last year.
Tortured for confessions
In past years, the United States had sponsored motions critical of Beijing for its policies towards Tibet and religious minorities. But this year no other country came forward to take on that role.
But human rights activists have lashed out at the European Union in particular for its reluctance to take China to task.
"The EU clearly neither possess the courage or political will to make an objective defence of the Tibetan people's rights," Reuters news agency quoted Tsweang Lhadon of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy as saying.
Meanwhile another leading U.S. rights group accused the European Union of provoking a "diplomatic fiasco" by turning down an opportunity to criticize China's human rights record.
"China will escape scrutiny of its human rights record...precisely at the time when abuses are increasing," the U.S. group Human Rights Watch said.
While China escaped censure, Russia, Israel and Cuba were back in the dock for alleged abuses.
Zhang defended China's use of capital punishment after the international rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday China executed a total of 2,468 people in 2001, including nearly 1,800 in four months in a clampdown on crime.
Many of those condemned to death could have been tortured to extract confessions, and the total number of executions could be far higher because many killings were kept secret, Amnesty said.
"We believe Amnesty International's censure of China's so-called misuse of the death penalty has no basis whatsoever."
"Although China has maintained a policy of capital punishment, we have always implemented strict controls on it."
www.cnn.com
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue also lashed back at an Amnesty International statement that China executed more people than all other countries put together in 2001, calling accusations China abused the death penalty "baseless."
Unlike previous years, no country came forward with a resolution critical of China before a deadline passed for presenting motions at the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
"We have maintained that all countries should conduct human rights exchanges and dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect," Zhang told a regular news briefing.
"This time we have noted that this proposal has been recognized by more and more countries internationally and has become the mainstream."
China had been widely expected to avoid official criticism this year in the absence of the United States, which failed to win re-election to the 53-nation Commission in an upset vote in New York late last year.
Tortured for confessions
In past years, the United States had sponsored motions critical of Beijing for its policies towards Tibet and religious minorities. But this year no other country came forward to take on that role.
But human rights activists have lashed out at the European Union in particular for its reluctance to take China to task.
"The EU clearly neither possess the courage or political will to make an objective defence of the Tibetan people's rights," Reuters news agency quoted Tsweang Lhadon of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy as saying.
Meanwhile another leading U.S. rights group accused the European Union of provoking a "diplomatic fiasco" by turning down an opportunity to criticize China's human rights record.
"China will escape scrutiny of its human rights record...precisely at the time when abuses are increasing," the U.S. group Human Rights Watch said.
While China escaped censure, Russia, Israel and Cuba were back in the dock for alleged abuses.
Zhang defended China's use of capital punishment after the international rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday China executed a total of 2,468 people in 2001, including nearly 1,800 in four months in a clampdown on crime.
Many of those condemned to death could have been tortured to extract confessions, and the total number of executions could be far higher because many killings were kept secret, Amnesty said.
"We believe Amnesty International's censure of China's so-called misuse of the death penalty has no basis whatsoever."
"Although China has maintained a policy of capital punishment, we have always implemented strict controls on it."
www.cnn.com